Bob CollinsWhat happens to child stars? Sometimes, they grow up to lead a movement to subvert Charles Darwin Day. Take Kirk Cameron, for example, who starred in the ’80s sitcom, “Growing Pains.”
Cameron and other activists plan to deliver to schools 50,000 altered copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species on November 21st, Huffington Post reported.
In his video, Cameron says young people can no longer pray in public or open a Bible in school, neither of which is true. He also says a survey said 61% of professors in biology and psychology are atheist or agnostic. “No wonder atheism has doubled in the last 20 years among 19 to 25 year olds,” he says.
Maybe. Maybe not. A 2007 survey of all institutions and all professors, found , most believe in God. At “elite” schools, the number of atheists was only 37 percent.
Coincidentally, Trinity College released a survey today showing 22 percent of 18-29 year olds “claim the nonreligious label, a jump from 11 percent in 1990.” But that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in God:
Nones may best be described as skeptics. Twenty-seven percent of Nones believe in a personal God. Hard and soft agnostics make up 35 percent of the None population and atheists account for only 7 percent of Nones. Contrary to what many believe, Nones are not particularly superstitious or partial to New Age beliefs. They are, however, more accepting of human evolution than the general U.S. population.
This week, “Creation” opens in the UK.
The movie, however, is not being distributed in the U.S. Science Blog has the review:
“The film has many historical inaccuracies, but that’s to be expected when filmmakers condense a life into a few hours. Creation’s larger problem stems from the decision to focus on a narrow slice of Darwin’s life, arguably one of the least interesting. … Instead of dramatizing how Darwin traveled the world and arrived at the most explosive idea in history, Creation is ultimately about the world’s biggest case of writer’s block.”
There’s little evidence to supportCameron’s concerns that evolution might take root in America. A Gallup poll last February indicated only 39% of those surveyed believe in the theory.
In a University of Minnesota biology professor’s class survey of incoming freshmen last year, one out of 4 students was taught creationism. “Most students want to know more about evolution,” Randy Moore told MPR’s Perry Finelli last winter. “They know almost nothing about it when they get here.
