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Millions of people supporting the McCain-Palin ticket in the United States believe that the earth is 4000 years old and dinosaurs and men existed side-by-side.

Millions of people supporting the McCain-Palin ticket in the United States believe that the earth is 4000 years old and dinosaurs and men existed side-by-side. No, they don't. The writer of this article is as ignorant as the imaginary people he is attacking.

fizx 18y ago
As someone who grew up evangelical, I assure you that the only inaccuracy in the statement is that millions believe the earth is 6000 years old (i.e. 4000BCE). My estimate is that 25-50% of youth and 50-75% of the 40+ crowd in the churchgoing population believe this.
- bmj 18y ago
  And I can say that in my denomination (Reformed Presbyterian, which is theologically conservative) the percentages are far, far lower. My own congregation includes several university professors (CMU, U Pittsburgh) that are not Young Earth Creationists. Heck, we even had a geology prof in the congregation for awhile, and he certainly wasn't. I don't consider our denomination "evangelical," but I'm sure the general public would. EDIT: I'm not trying to start a religious/cultural war...just want to point out that saying things like "50-75% of the churchgoing population" is a bit of a broad generalization.
jlhamilton 18y ago
I wouldn't be so sure about that. While it's true that Catholics and members of the mainline Protestant denominations are unlikely to believe dinosaurs and men lived together, there are still millions of other more conservative religous people out there. I did a quick Google search and found that there are about 16 million Southern Baptists, 6 million Mormons, 3 million members of the Assemblies of God, and 2.5 million members of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (whose doctrine statement supports young Earth creationism). So there are easily 30 - 40 millions of these kind of people in America. Now most young-Earthers probably haven't thought much about dinosaurs and people living together, but they do believe in the story of Noah and the ark and that the Earth is about six to ten thousand years old, and it would only follow from that. So what percent of these 40 million are voting for Palin and also believe dinosaurs and people lived together? Easily five percent, but I'd wager it's closer to 50-75%.

fizx 18y ago

As someone who grew up evangelical, I assure you that the only inaccuracy in the statement is that millions believe the earth is 6000 years old (i.e. 4000BCE). My estimate is that 25-50% of youth and 50-75% of the 40+ crowd in the churchgoing population believe this.

bmj 18y ago
And I can say that in my denomination (Reformed Presbyterian, which is theologically conservative) the percentages are far, far lower. My own congregation includes several university professors (CMU, U Pittsburgh) that are not Young Earth Creationists. Heck, we even had a geology prof in the congregation for awhile, and he certainly wasn't. I don't consider our denomination "evangelical," but I'm sure the general public would. EDIT: I'm not trying to start a religious/cultural war...just want to point out that saying things like "50-75% of the churchgoing population" is a bit of a broad generalization.

jlhamilton 18y ago

I wouldn't be so sure about that. While it's true that Catholics and members of the mainline Protestant denominations are unlikely to believe dinosaurs and men lived together, there are still millions of other more conservative religous people out there. I did a quick Google search and found that there are about 16 million Southern Baptists, 6 million Mormons, 3 million members of the Assemblies of God, and 2.5 million members of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (whose doctrine statement supports young Earth creationism). So there are easily 30 - 40 millions of these kind of people in America. Now most young-Earthers probably haven't thought much about dinosaurs and people living together, but they do believe in the story of Noah and the ark and that the Earth is about six to ten thousand years old, and it would only follow from that. So what percent of these 40 million are voting for Palin and also believe dinosaurs and people lived together? Easily five percent, but I'd wager it's closer to 50-75%.