Majority of Physicians Give the Nod to Evolution Over Intelligent Design

[northzax]

Majority of Physicians Give the Nod to Evolution Over Intelligent Design

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2005--Results of a national survey of 1,472 physicians revealed that more than half of physicians (63%) agree that the theory of evolution is more correct than intelligent design.

The study was conducted by the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social and Religious Research at The Jewish Theological Seminary and HCD Research in Flemington, New Jersey, from May 13-15. The study was conducted as part of a continuing investigation of the social, political, and economic issues confronting the U.S. health care system. The margin of error for the study was plus or minus 3% at a 95% level of confidence.

from Businesswire: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050523005605&newsLang=en

reading on, there is a breakdown by religious affiliation, which is interesting.

But what really scares me is that 37% of physicians DON'T agree with the general theory of evolution. Anyone want a surgeon who believes in ID? scary.

[sir_captain]

1. Well

the simplistic error doesn't take into account that this would be a very self-selected pool of respondents--here's betting that the tiny minority of docs who are nuts and don't believe in evolution were much more likely to answer this poll.

[northzax]

2. it's not a web poll

it's a 'scientific' poll (I only use quotes because I have not examined their methodology) which should help reduce the self-respondent impact, I think.

[sir_captain]

6. Not really

that just means that it wasn't open to anyone and everyone. Most docs I know--if someone, no matter how "scientific" they were, called them up and asked them if they believed in evolution--would hang up before the sentence was even finished.

[northzax]

11. it depends on how it was conducted

if it sounded like it was coming from a real research institution, and was couched in other questions, I think it might work.

on the flip side, the Finkelstien is not a real research institution, so maybe you're right.

[blurp]

21. The other problem is that doctors are rarely scientists

Oh, they'd like you to think they're scientists, but they're not.

[sir_captain]

22. True

but they're certainly vastly overeducated when it comes to evolution. (Hint: it's covered on the MCAT)

[Double T]

3. I Think Patients Should Have Doctors Fill Out Questionaires............

....before they begin a procedure or an operation. I sure want to know who's going to be doing the work and what he thinks and believes.

[carpetbagger]

19. I'd go out of business.

I bet that if I were in private practice, I'd lose half of my patients if they knew I did not believe in a number of core dogmas of Christianity.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

4. Never met a physician who didn't believe in the theory of evolution....

NEVER. That doesn't mean that there aren't a handful of 'intelligent designers' but I know literally 100's and 100's of physicians personally and they are people of SCIENCE... real science

[BurtWorm]

5. Why are Protestants so backward about this, I wonder.

It seems that what happened to Islam is happening to Protestantism. At their inception, they each represented the most progressive thought of their time. Somehow, they've come to also represent some of the most backward thought of our own time. I wonder why this is so.

[ananda]

7. What if..

.. you believe in both?

How do you answer then?

Sue

[BurtWorm]

8. Here's an interesting comparison

-- A majority of Catholic doctors (67%) agree with the statement that God initiated and guided an evolutionary process that has led to current human beings, while 11% believe that "God created humans exactly as they appear now." By contrast, less than half of Protestant doctors (46%) believe that God initiated and guided an evolutionary process, while 35% believe that God created humans as they appear now. The majority of Jewish doctors (65%) agree more with the statement that "humans evolved naturally with no supernatural involvement."

[damntexdem]

14. Modern Creationism was a Protestant ideology.

The Catholic Church was not initially very open to Darwin, but had been burnt by Galileo, so was careful. And over a half-century ago, a pope stated that belief in evolution was fine for Catholics. I was brought up a Catholic and attended Catholic schools K-12, and never heard a negative word about evolution.

Meanwhile, modern Creationism was a product of the early 20th Century among some, not all, Protestant fundamentalists (by contrast, some of Europe still sports small proportions of old-line Creationists belonging to denominations that rejected Darwin from day one, well from 1859). What most people believed over all of this time was probably more-heavily Creo than what got written about intellectually; but he Scopes Trial (1925) occurred in a time of upsurge of Creationist ideology. That upsurge largely chased evolution from U.S. K-12 education until the 1957 'Sputnik scare' and resulting emphasis on science education, which brought evolution back. It has been a battle ever since. (I use capitalized 'Creationist' to refer to those who reject evolution; this specifically excludes the large numbers of Protestants and great majority of Catholics who believe that God used evolution in creating life.)

[DuaneBidoux]

18. And you're right--it is a protestant issue. Catholics have no problems

with science. Wonder why this is? I think you raise a very good question.

[tex-wyo-dem]

9. 37%?

Dang, that's scary. 37% of doctors, men and women of science, believing in some contrived pseudo-wannabe-science bent to conform to the Bible vs. hard scientific fact? Yeah, I'd want one of these quacks working on me <sarcasm>.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. What about the idea

that evolution IS intelligent design?

[damntexdem]

15. Theistic evolution is what most of those religious doctors believe in.

For example, the 86% of Catholic MDs presumably believe that God created the universe, but also that evolution occurred, so presumably was used by God to develop life. The problem here is separating the science and what it teaches medicine from the philosophy, and the further problem of how some philosophies (theologies) can prevent clear thoughts using scientific principles.

[seabeyond]

12. 37% of physicians DON'T agree

ha, this is what i was thinking reading this

[damntexdem]

13. The issue isn't believing in ID ...

it's believing ID to be science. And it's disagreeing with evolution. I don't care whether a doc believes in a God who created things -- I DO care that my doc thinks in terms of evolutionary principles when approaching such issues as prescribing antibiotics, counseling about healthy behaviors, considering public health as well as individual health issues, and so on.

Some of the other questions were more-informative. I worry about that 40% of Protestant Doctors who reject evolution: that's what I call a clear and present danger.

[leftofthedial]

16. Un-effing-believable

that 37% of physicians don't agree that evolution is more correct tha ID.

how'd they ever get into med school?

We need to get these moran zealots out of the gene pool.

[Sgent]

17. I *really* want to know the methedology

Have any of you actually tried to ever survey a doctor? Good luck. Even your family physician will toss just about all surveys instantly, won't take phone calls like this, etc.

The potential for self selection in this survey is huge.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. Doesn't bother me in the slightest...

since the concept of ID exists even with physicists and cosmologists. There were two atheists questioned in the study who leaned more toward ID.

It does go back to Aristotle's Prime Mover, after all, and is simply a philosophical construct, and not necessarily a religious one, although some fanatics have hijacked it.

As Catholics and many Protestants teach, there is absolutely nothing in ID or evolution that contradict each other to the point where you have to choose one or the other.

This page is the only one that could be a bit scary, but, still, doctors are trained as healers and mechanics, not theoreticians, so what's the big deal?

http://www.hcdi.net/polls/J5776/

The rate of ID believers among Muslims is higher than that of Protestants,which doesn't surprise me. I would imagine tht if the sampling were to identify WHICH Protestants we're talking about, that would be even higher amongst some groups.