But More Look To The Mystical Than Science To Explain Life's Mysteries
Oversized hairy men-creatures wandering the wilderness and visits from extraterrestrial life forms just don't excite the masses like they once did. At least in the United States. Some figure this is because more Americans have a basic understanding of science than they did 20 or 30 years ago. Or perhaps there are just less BigFoots and UFOs around these days.
But a widespread knowledge of basic science doesn't mean people are turning in huge numbers to rational explanations for the answers to the great mysteries of life, the universe and everything in between.
For those kinds of answers, more and more Americans are turning to the 'psuedo-sciences', including horoscopes and creationism.
Good story on all this from the Associated Press, but here's some highlights :
"What does astrology speak to? Love relationships," Losh said, noting that belief in horoscopes is much higher among women than men.
Belief in abduction by space aliens is also on the rise, Losh said."It's not surprising that the generation that grew up on `Twilight Zone' and early `Star Trek' television endorsed a link between UFOs and alien spacecraft," she said.
Pseudoscience discussion is often absent from the classroom, Losh said, so "we have basically left it up to the media."
Raymond Eve of the University of Texas at Arlington had mixed news in surveys of students at an unnamed Midwestern university.
The share that believed aliens had visited Earth fell from 25 percent in 1983 to 15 percent in 2006. There was also a decline in belief in "Bigfoot" and in whether psychics can predict the future.
But there also has been a drop in the number of people who believe evolution correctly explains the development of life on Earth and an increase in those who believe mankind was created about 10,000 years ago.
Miller said a second major negative factor to scientific literacy was religious fundamentalism and aging.
