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paleonet How about some numbers?



Seeking to lower the "heat index" of the current science-religion 
discussion with information....

For those of you who love numbers and statistics (and I know you do...) 
here are some more to stimulate your brains with.  Gallup just released a 
new poll on America's view on creationism, evolution, biblical "literalism" 
etc.

See if you were a regular visitor to the NCSE website (www.ncseweb.org) you 
would already have known about this poll...:)

You can read a short article on the results here:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=14107

It is a sobering message - believe me.

People have been throwing a lot of labels around during this discussion 
such as "fundamentalist", "evangelical" and "biblical literalist".  It has 
been said that "Nothing about religion is simple" (that's a plug for all 
you Dune fans...) and different people appear to "hear" different things 
when confronted by these terms.  Just for consistency...this website gives 
a nice little introduction to these terms, their definitions, and their 
socio-political-religious history.  I can't vouch for accuracy but I found 
the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College an 
enlightening resource (yes that is THE Wheaton College of the PBS/WGBH 
Evolution series fame).  So directly from the horse's mouth (so to speak):

http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining_evangelicalism.html#Defining

DISCLAIMER: I apologize if all of this is old news to you.  I fear that 
some of the most recent paleonet postings may have involuntarily been 
filtered down my spam/virus drain rather than land in my inbox.  Our server 
is currently being bombarded by an unprecedented amount of spam mail.

----------------------
Alexander Glass
Paleobiology of ophiuroids, asteroids, and crinoids

Ph. D. Candidate
Department of Geology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1301 West Green Street, NHB 245
Urbana, IL 61801
United States
----------------
Tel:217-333-4963
Fax: 217-244-4996
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“The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many 
willows – a wall against the wind.”  Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim 
(Frank Herbert, Dune)