Ever since Nick Copernicus published his blockbuster hit De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestum way back in 1543, most educated and enlightened folk have accepted the premise that the Earth moves around the sun.
Apparently, some people in the United States have not got the message. 1 out of 4 people, as a matter of fact. 25%. The stats come from a survey of 2,200 people, conducted by the National Science Foundation. It’s a survey they do every couple of years, sort of a literacy census, and the results get reported to congress and the president.
It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. It’s always between 25 and 30% when questions of this nature come up. Is global warming real? Is the Earth more than 6,000 years old? Did mankind evolve from lower forms of life? It’s not too difficult to realize that it’s the same 25-30%.
It’s probably about the same percentage that were either home schooled, went to deeply religious private schools, or just paid more attention to their religious nutcase parents than they did to their science teacher. Their 3rd grade science teacher.
The problem is not that all Americans are stupid. After all, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both American, and they’re both smart. Noam Chomsky is American, and so is Rachel Maddow. No flies on either of them. Woody Allen is American. Just because he’s a pervert doesn’t mean he’s not a genius. Despite the inadequacies of the American educational system, the USA continues to produce brilliant artists, scientists, inventors and whatnot.
Intelligence is like money, in this respect: It’s not that there is a lack of it in the United States, it’s that the gap between the haves and have nots is large, and growing.
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