Religion cuts trust in science - survey

  • Breaking
  • 21/04/2014

Scientists in the US are shaking their heads following the release of a survey showing half the population there don't believe in the Big Bang.

The AP-GfK survey also shows 40 percent of US adults don't believe in man-made climate change, 15 percent don't think vaccines work and 8 percent deny the existence of the human genome.

"Science ignorance is pervasive in our society, and these attitudes are reinforced when some of our leaders are openly antagonistic to established facts," 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine winner Randy Schekman of the University of California told the Associated Press.

Forty percent also expressed doubt about the age of the Earth and evolution and the survey shows confidence in the existence of evolution, the Big Bang and climate change closely corresponds with faith in religion.

"When you are putting up facts against faith, facts can't argue against faith," says 2012 Nobel Prize winning biochemistry professor Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University.

"It makes sense now that science would have made no headway because faith is untestable."

More Democrats believe the scientific view of the world than Republicans.

Prof Lefkowitz said the lack of belief in scientific realities is the result of "concerted campaigns to discredit scientific fact" from political, religious and business groups.

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source: newshub archive