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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
I may be way off base, but presumably there's some correlation between religiosity and church attendance.
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Well that doesn't appear to be the case based on this not so recent poll.
I believe in science and haven't been in a lab in years.
Most of this comes from a belief in "this is what I was taught growing up so it must still be true".
In this instance you're using a poll to refute another poll. Why can't I just say yours is wrong? In an Angus Reid poll I just read, 20% of canadians 18-34 believed the earth was created less than 10% years ago. That's a pretty big percentage.
One of the reasons is that while kids may not be going to church often, they are going to school, and guess what they might be learning...:
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However you describe it -- distinct, peculiar, or stubborn -- it's undeniable: Albertans possess a unique propensity for bucking national trends.
Not that we're troubled by it, mind you; quite the opposite, in most cases. When Albertans are seen to be out of step with much of the country, we wonder what's wrong with everyone else.
This is a case, however, where we should be wondering what's wrong with us -- a case where Alberta's anomalous body of opinion is not a source of pride, but rather a deep embarrassment.
An Angus Reid poll released last week asks Canadians their views on the question of evolution versus creation.
Overall, 58 per cent of Canadians say they are believers in evolution. By region, the numbers are more or less in keeping with the national average.
However, there's one notable exception in this poll: Alberta.
A shockingly low 37 per cent of Albertans supported the position that humans beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years. An even greater number of Albertans -- 40 percent -- agreed that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years.
How can this be?
Does this represent some serious shortcomings in our educational system? Have we been swayed by the charlatans of the Intelligent Design movement? Is there some truth to the stereotype of Alberta as a hotbed of religious fundamentalism?
If these numbers are accurate, we need to understand the source of the problem and correct it. The fact that Alberta boasts Canada's first creation museum suggests that these depressing numbers are not the product of some rogue poll.
The Angus Reid numbers show that older Canadians are more likely than younger Canadians to reject evolution. That may suggest that the problem is not entirely attributable to the education system, but here in Alberta two trouble spots need to be addressed.
Evolution is taught in Alberta schools, but not to the extent that it ought to be. Evolution is a component of Biology 20, and further explored in Biology 30. Of course, for high school students, those courses are optional.
Other experts have cited the need to further incorporate evolution into the science curriculum and, poll numbers aside, the case for such an overhaul is strong.
Furthermore, although Alberta's model of school choice is commendable, is may also be a source of the problem.
Alberta taxpayers should not be subsidizing pseudoscience and religious dogma masquerading as legitimate curriculum.
The government recently announced an increase in per-capita funding to private schools, providing those schools meet a specific set of criteria. That criteria should include a ban on the teaching of creationism and its gussied up offspring, Intelligent Design.
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The article is from 2008.