Scientific Attitude Survey Results 2001

 
Question Agree Disagree Don't Know
1. There is now good evidence that the Earth has been and is being visited by technologically advanced alien races. 5 44 24
2. Astrological birth sign is a valid method of determining personality and predicting major life events. 9 55 9
3. Life slowly evolved on this planet by natural processes occurring over several billion years. 46 20 7
4. The universe will one day stop expanding, and then collapse in on itself in a 'Big Crunch.' 7 35 31
5. The high number of people reporting alien abduction is compelling evidence for its reality. 5 57 12
6. The sun is a star, and all other stars are very distant suns. 34 24 15
7. Matter and antimatter particles are constantly being created out of the vacuum of space, and then quickly annihilate each other . 19 9 46
8. The human body has a nearly unlimited capacity to heal itself of disease. 26 32 15
9. Science is a social and cultural endeavor with no more claim to the truth than any other method of knowing. 29 29 15

Comments:

  1. There is no solid evidence of this (unfortunately).  There are lots of individual stories and fuzzy pictures but nothing really compelling.  Remember that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  (I refuse to believe in massive conspiracies.  If you believe in massive conspiracies then you can dismiss all possible evidence, since anything can be done be a conspiracy.)
  2. Astrologers were given the birth information of 30 people who had been executed for murder and asked to cast their horoscope.  They did not 'predict' the fate of any of the 30 people.  Oops!
  3. The evidence is solidly on the side of evolution.  But evolution and creation can be compatible.  Why can't an omnipotent omniscient God use evolution to create human beings?  See my (short) article.
  4. Scientists are not sure.  At present, we think that it will continue expanding.
  5. No.  If only 1 person in a thousand is totally nuts, then you can still have 300,000 Americans testifying to anything.  Another problem is sane people having experiences they don't understand and attributing it to 'aliens'.
  6. This must have been worded confusingly.  Our Sun and all the stars we see in the night sky are all the same kind of object.  They are all huge, hot objects fueled by nuclear fusion.
  7. This one is actually true.  We'll discuss it when we get to quantum mechanics.
  8. Our immune systems are pretty fantastic, but cancer or heart disease or cystic fibrosis still kill millions of people.  Thank goodness for modern medicine with its antibiotics, vaccinations, and surgery.
  9. Unlike other disciplines, science has a way of knowing when it is wrong.   I don't care whether you are pagan, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Moslem or Buddhist; whether you are American or Lapplander; whether you are libertarian, communist, or humanist; you will all fall at the same speed if you jump off a building and your computers will all work exactly the same way.  Note that individual scientists are still humans and just as pigheaded, petty, obnoxious and generous as the rest of us.


Larry Weinstein

Last modified: Tue Aug 28 17:05:00 EDT 2001