Is this true?

friendlyagnostic
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Is this true?

I got this email from Defcon today.  It says "a poll shows that 95% of Evangelicals reject the Creation Musuem's strange, dino-friendly version of Creationism . In addition, only 10% of self-identified Evangelicals support Intelligent Design."  It talks about how divided the religious right really is.  Is this true?  If so, why all the noise about being "unified?" Just wondering....

 

Dear M,

DefCon Poll Shows Rift in Religious Right

The new anti-science Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, has nothing of value to teach about the development of life on Earth -- but that doesn't mean we haven't learned anything from it.

A new poll released by DefCon reveals the enormous schism within the religious right represented by the museum. The poll shows that 95% of Evangelicals reject the Creation Musuem's strange, dino-friendly version of Creationism . In addition, only 10% of self-identified Evangelicals support Intelligent Design. While religious right leaders like James Dobson lump all forms of anti-evolution together, the new Creation Museum is showing us just how deeply divided the religious right really is.

You can download the full poll results here (PDF), or click here to read an analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer (the museum's own home-town newspaper).

The other main lesson we've learned from the museum is just how concerned many Americans are about the continued assault on science education from the religious right. Nearly 25,000 people from across the country have signed our petition condemning the museum's anti-science agenda. If you haven't already, click here to sign the petition, spread the word, or get your own DefCon Creation Musuem bumper sticker.

 

Bush Again Bows to Religious Right on Stem Cells

Once again, with overwhelming support from the American people and the medical establishment, Congress passed a bill this Spring to relax restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. And once again, President Bush has caved in to the only major group opposing the potentially life-saving research -- the religious right -- in vetoing the bill.

Since last May, DefCon supporters have sent more than 100,000 emails to President Bush and congressional leaders urging them to support embryonic stem cell research. In light of the president's unwillingness to buck the religious right on this crucial issue, it is clear that our best hope is securing a veto-proof majority. Click here to contact your senators and ask them to put lives above the religious right's agenda.



Attorney General Gonzalez Visits the Discovery Institute

Last month, Attorney General Gonzalez became the latest political official to speak at an event sponsored by the Discovery Institute, the leading proponent of Intelligent Design. While Gonzalez's speech focused on intellectual property and cybercrime, his decision to pay a visit to an organization leading the campaign to undermine science education in America is troubling. Senator John McCain made a similar trip to a Discovery Institute event in February.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the parade of politicians pandering to the Discovery Institute is that the Institute's main financial backer, Howard Ahmanson, has a long history of attempting to undermine the separation of church and state. He spent 20 years on the board of the Chalcedon Foundation, an organization dedicated to replacing American civil law with "Biblical law."

That the head of the Justice Department decided to make a special visit to Ahmanson's current pet project raises deep concerns. Visit the DefCon blog for more information on Gonzalez's speech to the Discovery Institute.



Please stay tuned to the DefCon Blog for daily updates.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work.

Clark and the rest of the DefCon Team


wavefreak
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It's called the Golden

It's called the Golden Rule. WHoever has the gold makes the rules. If the most money was in the hands of 1% of the Christian right, then they would get to make the rules.

 

In my mind the rise of Christian Fundamentalism is actually a function of greed. One of their key teachings is "Prosperity". Basically god wants his children to be rich. The underpinning of this is tithing. If you aren't properous it's because you don't tithe. So the Far Right has a mechanism in place that keeps them well funded. If you want your sugar daddy in the sky to rain blessings upon you,  give more money to the church. This doctrine is really an appeal to materialism cloaked in spiritual double-speak. It makes me ill.

 


Job
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friendlyagnostic wrote: I

friendlyagnostic wrote:

I got this email from Defcon today.  It says "a poll shows that 95% of Evangelicals reject the Creation Musuem's strange, dino-friendly version of Creationism . In addition, only 10% of self-identified Evangelicals support Intelligent Design."  It talks about how divided the religious right really is.  Is this true?  If so, why all the noise about being "unified?" Just wondering....

Divided?  Of course, take any group of people and you are bound to find division over minor points of the issue that defines them as a group.  In this case, the poll results don't show division so much as they show the majority of those polled don't agree wih the Creation Museum about whether there were dinos on the ark or not.  I'll bet I could find a fair bit of division in non-Creationists over many different issues relating to origin and/or evolution! Smiling


Textom
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It depends on how you slice

It depends on how you slice up the numbers.

The definition of "Evangelicals" is a moving target and doesn't have a clear relationship to "fundamentalists" or "young earth creationists." 

The numbers I've seen  suggest that  the people who agree with the Creation Museum's view of human history are definitely a minority of the population as a whole and a minority of American Protestants.  But it's not their effect on people who already agree with them that matters--and they are well aware of this.  It's the people who are listening and watching and the legitimization of a marginal viewpoint that count.

"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert


friendlyagnostic
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wavefreak wrote: It's

wavefreak wrote:

It's called the Golden Rule. WHoever has the gold makes the rules. If the most money was in the hands of 1% of the Christian right, then they would get to make the rules.

 

In my mind the rise of Christian Fundamentalism is actually a function of greed. One of their key teachings is "Prosperity". Basically god wants his children to be rich. The underpinning of this is tithing. If you aren't properous it's because you don't tithe. So the Far Right has a mechanism in place that keeps them well funded. If you want your sugar daddy in the sky to rain blessings upon you,  give more money to the church. This doctrine is really an appeal to materialism cloaked in spiritual double-speak. It makes me ill.

 

I agree!


JCE
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Generally speaking, I do

Generally speaking, I do not trust poll results.  Sorry to be such a skeptic, but without seeing the questions asked on the poll and the number of participants, it is hard to say how accurate the results are.

That said, I have to agree with Wavefreak on this one.  The fundamentalists that do support the museum and ID have more than enough funding to get their voice heard.

Plus even if the majority disagrees with creationism and ID, they will never speak up publicly about it.  They will simply swallow whatever they are told by the church and go on about their business.  They may disagree privately, but they are not about to confront their church who has their supposed best interests at heart.

Kinda makes you want to bang your head against the wall.

 


friendlyagnostic
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jce wrote: Generally

jce wrote:

Generally speaking, I do not trust poll results.  Sorry to be such a skeptic, but without seeing the questions asked on the poll and the number of participants, it is hard to say how accurate the results are.

That said, I have to agree with Wavefreak on this one.  The fundamentalists that do support the museum and ID have more than enough funding to get their voice heard.

Plus even if the majority disagrees with creationism and ID, they will never speak up publicly about it.  They will simply swallow whatever they are told by the church and go on about their business.  They may disagree privately, but they are not about to confront their church who has their supposed best interests at heart.

Kinda makes you want to bang your head against the wall.

 

 

good point


shikko
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More to the point, why

More to the point, why would the fine people from DefCon send out a link about the ID Funhouse? I'd be more ready to believe they're testing out a new intrusion/exploit package.

 

In short, I hope y'all have a good firewall and don't surf with IE. Eye-wink

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