Forget the birthers, the creationists, and other religious and political fanatics, and similar fringe groups. Their ideas are not exactly motivated by hard facts.
Also, I am not surprised about the lack of education on religion, government, geography, and other subjects. That is a well documented issue. I also remember that while in college I was told by… enlightened students that Greece is in Southeast Asia (Asia, Europe… same deal), Greeks are black (Southern Europe, Mediterranean, North Africa, Africa!), and Greeks speak Latin (the expression ‘sounds Greek to me’ never really registered!), and other trivia of similar ‘quality'.’
However, the following really blows my mind:
In 1999 (eleven years ago!) 20% of Americans still believed that the sun revolved around the earth.
How is it possible to believe in something that was shown to be false almost 500 years ago? They have never heard of Copernicus and the heliocentric cosmology? Where do these people live? According to the poll they are all around me!I guess I have lived a rather sheltered intellectual life because I have never met people with such extreme ideas. I should be thankful for that!
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