Students' perceptions of Earth's age influence acceptance of human evolution

[Fumesucker]

From the dept. of "no, really?"

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/students-perceptions-earths-age-influence-acceptance-human-evolution-says-u-minn-study.html

High school and college students who understand the geological age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) are much more likely to understand and accept human evolution, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the March issue of the journal Evolution.

The finding could give educators a new strategy for teaching evolution, since the Earth's age is typically covered in physical rather than biological science classes.

<snip>

Using that information, they created a model that shows, for example, when a student's religious and political views are liberal, they are more likely to believe that the Earth is billions, rather than thousands, of years old and to know more about evolution. Conversely, students with conservative religious and political views are more inclined to think the Earth is much younger (20,000 years or less) and to know less about evolution.

"The role of the Earth's age is a key variable that we can use to improve education about evolution, which is important because it is the unifying principle of biology," said lead author Sehoya Cotner, associate professor in the Biology Program, which provides general biology classes for University of Minnesota undergraduates.

More at the link..

[Lyric]

1. The invisible pink unicorn tells me that Earth is precisely 42,000 years old.

And also that it was once covered in marshmallows, which melted and turned into the crude oil we're mining today. The Bible backs me up on this--after all, what is "manna" except fluffy marshmallows from the Unicorn? It's a pity those poor, misguided people attributed the Unicorn's generosity to their imaginary tribal war god, but when the Unicorn comes back to save us all and take us away to Candyland, whoooo boy, THOSE people are gonna regret their heresy.

All hail the Invisible Pink Unicorn!

[old mark]

2. I think that glorious event you are referring to is called

The Rupture?

Something like that, anyway.....

Can I get peanut butter with my marshmallows if I'm real good?

mark

[Fumesucker]

3. Sixteen percent of biology teachers would disagree with you..

The poll also reported that 16 percent of biology teachers believe God created humans in their present form at some time during the last 10,000 years.

[Lyric]

4. There's no help for those who insist on being sadly deluded.

[Fumesucker]

5. And not much help for those they teach.. n/t

[FarCenter]

6. The earth was created last Friday

It was just made to look old.