The most frightening statistic you will see this week
by digby
Maybe this year:
YouGov’s latest research shows that 41% of Americans think that dinosaurs and humans either ‘definitely’ (14%) or ‘probably’ (27%) once lived on the planet at the same time. 43% think that this is either ‘definitely’ (25%) or ‘probably’ (18%) not true while 16% aren’t sure. In reality the earliest ancestors of humans have only been on the planet for 6 million years, while the last dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.
There is a religious split on this question. While most Americans who describe themselves as ‘born again’ (56%) believe that humans and dinosaurs once shared the planet, most Americans who do not describe themselves as born again (51%) think that they did not. Only 22% of born again Americans think that dinosaurs and humans did not coexist.
I think what shocks me the most is that only 51% of those who are not born again believe it.
This is dinosaurs, people. The obsession of every elementary school age boy and many a girl too. Even the Jurassic movies make it abundantly clear that humans and dinosaurs were not on earth at the same time.
maybe we've always been this uneducated. I sure hope so because that means we've managed to survive despite the fact that we are, as a species, dumb as paleolithic rocks.
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