Do you really know what you think you know?

by Forrest Sheng Bao http://fsbao.net

It looks like President Obama is toughly fighting against rumors regarding his health insurance reform. http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

It is bad that most people on this planet, or at least in United States, are not scientists or engineers. Most people tend not to get information from the very source but information flying around them. For example, they may ask friends around about traffic rules in Texas but not visit the website of Texas Dept. of Public Safety and read the drivers handbook.

A very ironic thing is that more than half Americans believe we are developed from low level life over millions of years while more than half believe we are created by God at one time in the form we are now. According to Gallup poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/Religion.aspx, 18% and 35% samples believe it is definitely true and probably true, in "Evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life," respectively, whereas 39% and 27% in "Creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years." Gallup poll clearly defined evolution and creationism here. And it is clear, they are two exclusive things.

More ironically, more than 80% Americans think they are sure what evolution or creationism is. Let's see how well they understand. 41% and 41% samples think they are very familiar or somewhat familiar with evolution whereas 50% and 36% with creationism.

So, the thing is, more than half Americans believe on two contradicting things while 80% think they are familiar with both of them.

Do you really know what you think you know?