Well Tim, unfortunately data is hard to come by, but I'll stick my neck out a little and say the following:
At least a simple majority (50%+) of political conservatives in the USA believe in creationism and think Darwin is incorrect. To the extent that such people vote what they think, they work to oppose the teaching of the most important theory in all of modern biology. I'd further say that this 50%+ majority applies to the upper reaches of conservatism as well, including think tanks, talk show hosts, prominent writers, etc.
I find the idea that most agree to be not just wrong but very wrong.
So how should I view your comment above? I've now clarified what "most" is for me. What is "very wrong" for you. Did you only object because you thought I was saying 95%+ and you agree with me at 50%+, or do you think the number should be more like 25% or less?
AEI is not a big proponent of ID, or generally a religious right organization. I'm not saying it never says anything in support of ID. Certainly some of its members and even prominent members do support ID (or talk about having "balance" between ID and evolution, which might reasonably be considered almost the same thing) but ID really isn't their cause.
To provide some context, if AEI allowed some of its members to push the historical revisionism that the Holocaust was not correct, what would you expect the rest of the Institute to do? Would you expect this as an answer: I also don't thinking remaining silent does amount to the same thing. Each person has a limited amount of time, energy, money, etc. to deal with the issues in their lives. Only some of that will go to political issues, and most of that will go towards the issues they care most about. Caring more about other issues besides ID is not the same thing as being a supporter of ID, you could just as easily turn things around.
I suspect that IF an AEI fellow actually did succeed in holding a forum there advocating that the Holocaust was largely fiction, he'd find himself tossed out on his ear, with NO one sticking up for him. Just my WAG of course. Kind of ironic when you consider that the Holocaust is just a very small part of history, while evolution is about the entire history of life on earth. Odd how people can defend a speck of paint, while dismissing the work of art. |
