About 25% of Americans Don't Know the Earth Revolves Around the Sun

[Phantom Kat]

You can prove anything with a survey, just target your particular sample and expand it to the rest of the population of the US. This is just... stupid. Did you know that 100% of the U.S. watches breaking bad? Its cool, I asked two guys.

I did this when I was 2 years old. I thought women didn't eat meat. I ate meat, my dad ate meat, my brothers ate meat, but my mum didn't. Therefore women didn't eat meat.

I didn't know much about having a representative sample size when I was 2.

 

[Something Amyss]

You can prove anything with a survey, just target your particular sample and expand it to the rest of the population of the US. This is just... stupid. Did you know that 100% of the U.S. watches breaking bad? Its cool, I asked two guys.

You can prove anything with a survey, just target your particular sample and expand it to the rest of the population of the US. This is just... stupid. Did you know that 100% of the U.S. watches breaking bad? Its cool, I asked two guys.

I did this when I was 2 years old. I thought women didn't eat meat. I ate meat, my dad ate meat, my brothers ate meat, but my mum didn't. Therefore women didn't eat meat.

I didn't know much about having a representative sample size when I was 2.

Of course, we're talking a sample size of 2,200, so that's not really at issue. Many polling companies use smaller samples. While numbers vary, Pew and Gallup both will rely on much less.

But yeah, it's pithy to compare this to a sample of two people. I mean, having a sample size 1,100 times that is totally the same.

 

[Phantom Kat]

You can prove anything with a survey, just target your particular sample and expand it to the rest of the population of the US. This is just... stupid. Did you know that 100% of the U.S. watches breaking bad? Its cool, I asked two guys.

You can prove anything with a survey, just target your particular sample and expand it to the rest of the population of the US. This is just... stupid. Did you know that 100% of the U.S. watches breaking bad? Its cool, I asked two guys.

I did this when I was 2 years old. I thought women didn't eat meat. I ate meat, my dad ate meat, my brothers ate meat, but my mum didn't. Therefore women didn't eat meat.

I didn't know much about having a representative sample size when I was 2.

Of course, we're talking a sample size of 2,200, so that's not really at issue. Many polling companies use smaller samples. While numbers vary, Pew and Gallup both will rely on much less.

But yeah, it's pithy to compare this to a sample of two people. I mean, having a sample size 1,100 times that is totally the same.

I don't think that's relevant to the point Ghaleon640 was making, nor what I was referring to. As far as I am aware, he was pointing out that a survey can be easy to manipulate to say what you want, rather than a criticism of the sample size itself. Somewhat similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA (admittedly, it is a comedy sketch).

 

[AdagioBoognish]

I wonder how many kids were just fucking with the results. I can remember a few times taking these types of surveys in school, depending on how bored I was that day sometimes I'd just randomly pick answers, other times I'd intentionally pick the dumbest answer. Unless kids have an incentive to actually get the answers right, I don't know how reliable the results are.

(or maybe I'm just in the very small minority)

Haha, yeah.. I did the same. There's at a few anonymous surveys I took through out grade school where I claimed to use copious amounts of several drugs. Any good survey has a way to eliminate immature responses like that, but you've got to wonder at how many people really answered truthfully.

 

[black_knight1337]

Ah yes just theories because there might be a 0.0000001% chance they are wrong they are not facts. Do you know what qualifies as facts under that definition? Nothing. Human existence, the ways we perceive the world are all so limited that it is impossible to say anything in the certainty you pretend exists when you say "they are just theories".

Oh? There's no such thing as facts? So 1+1 could actually equal 12? And 1 could actually be greater than 2? Oh, and while we're at it, the Earth could be flat! Or even, the Sun rotates around the Earth! Thanks, that's a real eye-opener. /s

Really getting sick of people taking the piss out of science because they dare to be honest. There comes a point where the probability is so low on something being wrong we consider it fact evolution is up there. Hell most of our understanding and the advancements we made in modern medicine relies on it as fact.

Telling it like it is isn't taking the piss. Like I said before, theories still have a chance to be proven wrong. It's happened many times in the past. There could be a test done tomorrow that explores evolution and the evidence provided could disprove everything before it. There's nothing stopping that happening, which is why they remain as theories. Like I said before, I believe in evolution and I'd take the piss out of people that think otherwise but I'd do the same to people who put their money on a horse that's going at over 100 to 1.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't think that's relevant to the point Ghaleon640 was making, nor what I was referring to. As far as I am aware, he was pointing out that a survey can be easy to

manipulate to say what you want, rather than a criticism of the sample size itself. Somewhat similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA (admittedly, it is a comedy sketch).

Then why make the argument abotu a sample size of two in the first place?

He didn't criticise their methodology.

 

[Denamic]

Also, how does one "kill viruses" anyway? Virus is a single organic molecule, it's not even an organism of any description. It isn't even alive.

One can kill an engine, and they're not alive either. It means making it stop functioning. Don't pretend you don't know this.

 

[Phantom Kat]

I don't think that's relevant to the point Ghaleon640 was making, nor what I was referring to. As far as I am aware, he was pointing out that a survey can be easy to

manipulate to say what you want, rather than a criticism of the sample size itself. Somewhat similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA (admittedly, it is a comedy sketch).

Then why make the argument abotu a sample size of two in the first place?

He didn't criticise their methodology.

I'd assume he was taking the point to its logical extreme. His point may have contained an implicit criticism of the sample size but that is essentially an independent point from what he stated explicitly. If he did imply said criticism then I apologise.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'd assume he was taking the point to its logical extreme. His point may have contained an implicit criticism of the sample size but that is essentially an independent point from what he stated explicitly. If he did imply said criticism then I apologise.

That's not its logical extreme, it's reducto ad absurdum. It's taken it to the ridiculous extreme.

 

[Alarien]

Look, I'm all for bashing dumb Americans. I'm American. I sometimes wish I wasn't.

But, let's be fair. If you go around the world and ask how many people know the earth revolves around the sun, I'm sure you'd get similar numbers.

Let's pick on something more amusing. Like, maybe, 25% of 'Muricans think a Bald Eagle landed on Abraham Lincoln's head while he was having Thanksgiving Dinner with George Washington after they chopped down a cherry tree together in 1776. Oh, and then Abe kicked all the slaveowners in the balls and made everyone in the US automatically equal with no residual gender or racial issues. In 1776.

Totally.

I bet you get around 25% on that one too.

 

[Alma Mare]

Everytime I see these quizzes the results are mind-bogglingly depressing. It doesn't matter if it's from the USA or from anywhere else. I suppose it's the only way the results would be news-worthy. Running an average and balanced quizz on average and balanced people just to find that getting and average and balanced education led to average and balanced answers would hardly be revolutionary.

That said, people that doubt evolution should be forcibly excluded from the gene pool.

 

[Grabehn]

Well.. like many other stereotypes I would've assumed that "Americans are fat and stupid" had to start somewhere, and just in case anyone starts to think about it, I'm not stating my opinion here.

 

[thisbymaster]

25% of people who answer survey questions don't even read them or think about them. Shocking.

 

[babinro]

To be fair I don't 'know' this stuff either.
I hear these things and just assume them to be true.

It's important to note that we are in the 'information age'. The ability to retain facts and tidbits is far less important than the ability to find information when you need it. These test results are surprising but they don't really tell us anything.

 

[ace_of_something]

I think the more likely problem is that some Americans don't know what the word 'revolve' means.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Boy, this whole thread sure went downhill fast.

To war, and all that. x3

 

[TheIceQueen]

I am not going into the issue whether the universe was created by an explosion or whether we humans developed from animals, but those people did not believe that. Surely they knew there were people who believed it to have happened that way, but if you don't believe in this theory, of course you'll fill in that it isn't correct. There are a lot of people who don't support the evolution theory, big bang, my ancestors were apes etc.. and if that's what you believe you are not stupid for saying 'no' to the whole theory thingy.

I'm so sorry for my English.

Uhm arguing against evolution is like arguing against 2>1. The evidence is so overwhelming and it comes from so many different areas its almost embarrassing, between the fossil records, the DNA records and heck the very physiology of the human body not to mention the fact we see proof of it in every other living thing around us every day.

It's only considered a theory because the results of it can't be properly predicted. I.e Laws are a case of where X then Y. All evolution says is that given time.. change will occur, that's pretty much a law of the universe so it doesn't really count. but beyond stating that change will occur... you can't predict what that change will be or when it will happen.

Evolution isn't speculation...it's fact.

I believe in evolution but the evidence is not overwhelming if you break the rules.
1) Accept for a fact: god exists
2) some biological mechanisms are to hard to explain with evolution (as far as I know flagella fall under this categorie. Random mutation is a bit hard to believe to explain this one for the moment). This indicates intelligent design.
3) Accept for a fact: god created fossils etc to confuse non believers.

Bam. Evolution has been disproven. Offcourse you have to accept a few facts with no scientific proof whatsoever. I believe thats what they call having faith...

Numbers 23:19 - "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?"

Proverbs 6:16-19 - "There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."

If you accept for a fact that God would lie just to play mind games with people, that would make Him of the very abomination that He hates and also make Him a human. If He lies, He is human. If He is human, He is not a God. If He is not a God, then you can't accept for a fact that He exists as a God.

And I know that, personally, I expect more out of my Creator than being a petty liar who needs to use tricks to get His way. That sounds more like a devil's modus operandi.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

So in conclusion, the western educational systems aren't up to snuff.

Here's a scary thought, 1/3 of the 30% maybe running America! D:

 

[FalloutJack]

I have one simple message to the Flat-Earthers: Go out of your house, choose a direction, and start walking. And when you find point by which the world just STOPS, where everything would fall forever through SPACE, you come back and tell me where it is. (In short, I would never see them again.)

 

[Lunar Templar]

I to would like to know where the sample was taken, cause really? how do people the earth revolves around the sun.

Now, the ones relating to evolution and the creation of all things. I'm calling epic levels of bullshit on those.

First, those are questions that can contradict a persons faith, and while I have a low opinion of 'organized religion', marking those as 'wrong' is just a dick move.

Second, Evolution and 'The Big Bang' are not fact, they are nothing more then theory's, so gain, marking them as wrong, dick move.

I suspect they set them selves up to get the results they wanted ....

So in conclusion, the western educational systems aren't up to snuff.

Here's a scary thought, 1/3 of the 30% maybe running America! D:

what do you mean 'maybe'? I'm pretty certain that the least qualified people to be running the US are doing just that.