25% Of Americans Think The Sun Revolves Around The Earth...

[seeker001]

I wonder how much sarcasm came into play here? I would be very very tempted to say something sarcastic if a grown adult were to ask me this. "Of course the sun revolves around the earth, it is not like we have mountains of evidence to prove otherwise. I would go as far to say that humans are the center of the universe as everything revolves around us."

 

I'd consider this question to be an insult to my intelligence. We all have brain farts now and than and say something stupid when the answer is so basic, but to get this question wrong, unless you are being sarcastic, is a demonstration of ignorance to reality. For those who sincerely believe the sun revolves around the earth, barring being a young a child or having lived under a rock on a deserted island isolated from civilization from all your life, just wow. I will give credit where credit is due, at least this is not as stupid as believing the earth is flat. (I had the misfortune of learning that the flat earth society actually exists).

[Guest end3]

 

 

Not at all surprised. Just pick the dumbest thing you can possibly think of, and at least 25% of Americans will believe it's true. 

 

 

 

In the same survey, just 39 percent answered correctly (true) that "The universe began with a huge explosion" and only 48 percent said "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals."

 

Actually, the universe did not begin with "a huge explosion." Nothing exploded. Spacetime expanded from a singularity.

 

What the fuck does that mean....singularity?

 

 

 

The classic Big Bang model involves a beginnning entity that started it all. It is called a singularity since accordingly there would have been no parts to it, and by theory it is thought to be extemely small.

 

Today's consensus version of the Big Bang does not go back to a singularity. Today this version is thought to be hypothetical. Instead, according to present theory, the universe started with a hot-dense relatively small beginning, and from this point in time space accordingly expanded very rapidly. This is called the Inflation era. This is today's version of the Big Bang model.

 

Is any aspect of this theory valid? It would depend upon who you were talking to.

 

If you were talking to me, for instance, then I would tell you that I expect that the Big Bang model in the next century will be considered as stupid an idea as the original theory of the sun rotating around the Earth.

 

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

[Fernweh]

 

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

 

 

You do realize one of the nifty "features" of singularities is that they completely rule out the need for "god" as a cause for anything.

[Guest end3]

 

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

 

You do realize one of the nifty "features" of singularities is that they completely rule out the need for "god" as a cause for anything.

 

Well by all means Fern, elaborate on the "ruling out".

[Fernweh]

 

 

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

 

You do realize one of the nifty "features" of singularities is that they completely rule out the need for "god" as a cause for anything.

 

Well by all means Fern, elaborate on the "ruling out".

 

 

In a singularity all the laws of physics break down and whatever existed before the singularity doesn't matter. The origin of the Universe was a singularity. Whatever existed before is irrelevant because we only know what came out of the singularity. There's no need for gods here and we know exactly what came out the singularity -- hydrogen, and lots of it. There could have been an infinite number of universes before the singularity that created this one, or there could even be an infinite number of universes now.

 

I highly suggest you read Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan. That's not an Appeal to Authority, they don't "believe" anything that isn't already well established mathematics but they both are able to express these complicated topics in a way that makes sense to an IT geek like myself.

[mymistake]

 

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

 

 

 

Of course we could state it.  There are people here who could be pastors or evangelists and make a lot of money doing it.  We just choose not to for the same reasons we don't become palm readers or psychics.

 

A singularity is a theory based on real observations that has been tested many times.  Oneness and God are fairy tales.  It is not the Christian way to figure out how to disprove God and then reject God if the test goes that way.  But should you need a test for Oneness all you have to do is read about the God of rape, slavery and genocide in the Old Testament and the Jesus who never changes in the New Testament.

 

http://www.atheistmemebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/118-Why-God-made-people-650x491.jpg

[Cousin Ricky]

Thank you, it's difficult for me to hear words like this and definitions like infinite density etc. and not see how anyone could not also state infinite Oneness or God......or as the Beatles put it, "I am you and you are me and we are all together".

Thanks again.

 

Many of us feel a oneness with the universe, and the more science learns, the more this sense of oneness is enhanced. Isaac Newton started it all by recognizing that the heavens are “governed” by the same “laws” as the Earth. Biologically, evolution makes us one with all earthly life. Astrophysics has shown us that we are one with the stars. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said that not only are we in the universe, but the universe is in us.

 

However, some of us do not understand how one gets from “we are one with the cosmos” to “God.” It’s a non sequitur. (Even when I was a Christian I did not understand this line of reasoning.)

[RipVanWinkle]

End3: It is difficult for you because of your fear of god or hell or whatever keeps you from seeing the bible for what it is. If you want to read the bible for what it

actually says, rather than what you have been taught to believe it says or what you

want it to say, I believe you will be surprised. But you won't take those god colored

glasses off long enough to have any possibility of seeing the bible

for what it is.

 

If you were in school and the teacher asked the class to read a book, like Alice in Wonderland, for example, and prepare a book report on it, would you read it like you read the bible? Of course not,because you would not presume that any of the fantasies it

contains are or ever were real. But you make that very presumption about the bible. Try just for experimental purposes reading the bible with no presumptions about its

truthfulness or accuracy. Just try it.

 

You don't think that god really doesn't want you to do that, do you? God's credibility is not so weak with you that your afraid to put the bible to that simple test, is it?

Is he so horrible that he would condemn you to hell for being objective in your

assessment of the bible? Is his Word that tenuous? Assuming you don't cheat by refusing to suspend your belief long enough to objectively read the bible,I believe you will

better understand where we exXtians and other nonbelievers are coming from. Give it a

try. I really am not the devil trying to tempt you to do wrong. How can honestly

looking for the truth be a sin? Some understanding between us would be better than

none, would't it? bill

[sdelsolray]

What the fuck does that mean....singularity?

 

Study first, swear second (and only if your diligent research does not answer your question).

[ApostateAwoken]

To quote Professor Farnsworth from Futurama: 

 

I don't want to live on this planet anymore. 

[Jedah]

It's far more likely that most of the 25% just didn't understand the question. America has so many different cultures and "manners of speaking" that if you word things a certain way people in one part of a city may take it to mean completely the opposite of another.

[Vigile]

It's far more likely that most of the 25% just didn't understand the question. America has so many different cultures and "manners of speaking" that if you word things a certain way people in one part of a city may take it to mean completely the opposite of another.

 

Ha ha.  You're being too kind Jedah.  They all speak English and should be able to understand a simple question, but as Leno, et al have also shown on their man on the street interviews, many of them also can't walk and chew gum.

 

I'd argue this has less to do with lack of raw intelligence and has everything to do with the fact they've never been challenged to think by their teachers, so unless something was drilled into their heads, like the pledge of allegiance, they don't remember/know it. 

[miekko]

 

It's far more likely that most of the 25% just didn't understand the question. America has so many different cultures and "manners of speaking" that if you word things a certain way people in one part of a city may take it to mean completely the opposite of another.

 

Ha ha.  You're being too kind Jedah.  They all speak English and should be able to understand a simple question, but as Leno, et al have also shown on their man on the street interviews, many of them also can't walk and chew gum.

 

I'd argue this has less to do with lack of raw intelligence and has everything to do with the fact they've never been challenged to think by their teachers, so unless something was drilled into their heads, like the pledge of allegiance, they don't remember/know it. 

 

How many of those who know the world revolves around the sun have been challenged to think by their teachers? For quite some time after I learned that particular factoid, I was never challenged to think by my teacher - that particular fact was drilled into our heads too! 

[Vigile]

I don't recall ever learning that fact or really any major facts about the solar system when I was in school.  What I know, I learned on my own out of curiosity or in college.  The only facts they drilled into my head in HS were things like dates major events occurred (no delving into what those events meant in any meaningful way, but rather, 'what year did the US sign the declaration of independence? etc...), or the names of cellular components, e.g. mitochondria (yet not how it functions or what its purpose is). 

 

I graduated HS with as much information in my head as I had in it when I started HS.  My experience was common; at least in my community.  And, from what I've gathered from my own research and observation, many communities fair far, far worse than the one I was raised in.  I was raised in a primarily white, middle class state, city and district.  Those from poorer, more ethnically oriented communities, receive likewise a much poorer education. 

[★ Citsonga ★]

I don't recall ever learning that fact or really any major facts about the solar system when I was in school.  What I know, I learned on my own out of curiosity or in college.  The only facts they drilled into my head in HS were things like dates major events occurred (no delving into what those events meant in any meaningful way, but rather, 'what year did the US sign the declaration of independence? etc...), or the names of cellular components, e.g. mitochondria (yet not how it functions or what its purpose is). 

 

Well, I was taught the solar system in elementary school, so the fact that the earth orbits the sun was emphasized long before high school.

[Vigile]

 

I don't recall ever learning that fact or really any major facts about the solar system when I was in school.  What I know, I learned on my own out of curiosity or in college.  The only facts they drilled into my head in HS were things like dates major events occurred (no delving into what those events meant in any meaningful way, but rather, 'what year did the US sign the declaration of independence? etc...), or the names of cellular components, e.g. mitochondria (yet not how it functions or what its purpose is). 

 

Well, I was taught the solar system in elementary school, so the fact that the earth orbits the sun was emphasized long before high school.

 

 

We built models with crate paper and yarn, but I don't remember learning more than the names of the planets; I suppose logically, the model was the lesson teaching us which orbited which. 

 

In any case, I learned quite a lot between K-8.  It was the last 4 years that they just babysat me in hot rooms with monotone teachers forcing us to learn basic facts by rote. 

[Onyx]

[florduh]

I thought everyone had seen, or even made, something like this in grade school. Was I in the last class that was taught anything?

 

[Cousin Ricky]

I thought everyone had seen, or even made, something like this in grade school. Was I in the last class that was taught anything?

 

Solar-System-Mobile_sm.jpg

 

I think the first iceball on the left is missing from today's mobiles.

 

I don't remember ever constructing a mobile like that, but I did learn the basic format of the Solar System sometime between ages 5 and 7.

 

There should be no excuse for kids in ContraBardus's current town. There is a scale model of the Solar System on NW 8th Avenue.

[Voice]

 

I don't recall ever learning that fact or really any major facts about the solar system when I was in school.  What I know, I learned on my own out of curiosity or in college.  The only facts they drilled into my head in HS were things like dates major events occurred (no delving into what those events meant in any meaningful way, but rather, 'what year did the US sign the declaration of independence? etc...), or the names of cellular components, e.g. mitochondria (yet not how it functions or what its purpose is). 

 

Well, I was taught the solar system in elementary school, so the fact that the earth orbits the sun was emphasized long before high school.

 

I too got the facts early on.  White, middle class public school until HS when the education stepped up a couple notches with facts and purpose, and math, in a German community in Wisconsin.  Strong on education.  Church and State were quite separate.  That was where I tested out to be a moron on the SAT's.

[Radar1988]

This it truly mind numbing... I know the goverment likes to keep everyone stupid so that they can be controlled easier... but this is too much! I'm sure that religion has a lot to do with it as well, especially with the apparent resurgence of young-earth creationism. Hopefully this will be a shortlived issue on both the sheer illiteracy as well as the young-earth creationism BS (really, the same damn thing) for this country. The internet can be a wonderful thing, let's hope the potential for increasing one's knowledge doesn't get completely lost on this generation.

[mymistake]

I thought everyone had seen, or even made, something like this in grade school. Was I in the last class that was taught anything?

 

Solar-System-Mobile_sm.jpg

 

Pftt . . . back then Pluto was a planet.

[Thurisaz]

For what it's worth, I do seem to remember the planets were taught at my school too, here in Germany. If memory serves though that class didn't tell me anything new - I had already read about it in some book

[Ouroboros]

I thought everyone had seen, or even made, something like this in grade school. Was I in the last class that was taught anything?

 

Solar-System-Mobile_sm.jpg

Earth is the yellow shiny thing in the middle, right? I'm sure it is.

[bornagainathiest]

When shown a map and asked what the blue stuff on either side of America was, my neighbor's kid (14 yrs old) said...

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"The sky."

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