Fundamentally, Just as Stupid

From Live Science.com we learn that, "A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower."

The news is based on a report in the current issue of Science (subscription required), publishing the results of a 30-year survey by researchers who combined the data from public surveys about evolution conducted in 32 European countries, the United States, and Japan between 1985 and 2005. The basic question asked was --

"Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals -- Is this true, false, or are you not sure?"

[Click graph to enlarge]

So, what accounts for the rank stupidity of most Americans? According to Jon D. Miller of Michigan State University, one of the co-authors of the study, "American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close."