Misuse of probability by “creation scientists”

It often comes as a shock to professional scientists to learn that a large fraction of the public rejects much if not all of the evolutionary framework of modern geology and biology. For example, in a recent poll, 44% of Americans surveyed agreed that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years [Gallup]. Another indication of the popularity of this worldview, often termed “young-earth creationism”, is the fact that over 700,000 Americans have attended the “Creation Museum” near Cincinnati, Ohio since its opening in 1977. Displays at the museum insist

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Unscientific America

Review/synopsis of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirschenbaum, Basic Books, NY, 2009:

Carl Sagan, in his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World issued this sober warning:

We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

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