National Center for Science Education:
Prompted by the release of the movie Jurassic World, a new poll from YouGov indicates that Americans are about evenly split on the question of whether dinosaurs and humans lived on the planet at the same time.
Asked “Do you believe that dinosaurs and humans once lived on the planet at the same time,” 14% of respondents said definitely, 27% said probably, 18% said probably not, and 25% said definitely not; 16% were unsure.
Demographically, YouGov noted, “While most Americans who describe themselves as ‘born again’ (56%) believe that humans and dinosaurs once shared the planet, most Americans who do not describe themselves as born again (51%) think that they did not.”
In seeming confirmation of the roughly even split in opinion, a poll of registered voters in Texas in 2010 found that 30% agreed and 41% disagreed with “The earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs,” with 30% saying that they didn’t know.
Similarly, in Reports of the NCSE in 2010, George Bishop and his colleagues described a 2008 survey in which 40% of respondents agreed, and 48% of respondents disagreed, with “Dinosaurs lived at the same time as people.”
But the 2008 survey, which posed a large number of related but different questions to the respondents, also revealed apparent inconsistencies in their views: for example, 69% of respondents agreed with “Dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago.”In its press release, YouGov says that “the last dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.” In fact, the scientific consensus is that dinosaurs are still extant: birds are theropod dinosaurs. It is unclear to what extent respondents were influenced by the scientific consensus.
The poll surveyed 1000 adult Americans between June 15 and June 17, 2015, apparently on-line; the margin of error reported was plus/minus 4.4%. Further details of the polling methodology are not readily apparent.
Could have cleared up the problem by naming specific dinosaurs– like did the tyrannosaurs live with humans, avoiding the issue of birds as dinosaurs. Then ask the question of whether the sun revolves around the earth. That should clear of the fact that the American public is science illiterate.
The “bird issue” is not really relevant since the ‘science illiterate” have such a poor understanding of dinosaurs in general that they are unlikely to know that birds are dinosaurs.
As for “clearing up the problem”, there IS no problem in the eyes of many. The Creationism Museum and all those who go there BELIEVE that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Take a look at these pics that PROVE it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=creationism+museum+humans+riding+dinosaurs&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=treOVcGROoGlNtGWlYgL&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=953
PS Anyone who wants to see how crazy these people are should take a look at the Christians Against Dinosaurs website. I do believe James Inhofe is a member of their BOD.
http://www.christiansagainstdinosaurs.com/
What the poll seems to suggest is that education is wasted on 75% of the American population. This section of the population seem to believe that made up stuff is more credible, or possibly credible, than actual facts.
Frankly that terrifies me, coming from the country that possesses enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet many times over!
Education is “wasted” on 75% of the population?
Actually that’s a bit of hyperbole on your part. Many of that 75% DO manage to learn enough readin’-writin’-‘rithmetic to be gainfully employed, and enough history, science, and “etiquette” to be reasonably positive members of society.
The fact that some are substandard in terms of intellectual capabilities and spend too much time thumping bibles, waving confederate battle flags, voting for Repugnants, and “believing made up stuff” doesn’t mean all is lost.
After all, George W. Bush didn’t quite go to full General Jack D. Ripper mode in Iraq, did he?
Interestingly there is “evidence” that humanity was around over 1 Million years ago. A tad longer than 6,000 years, in which case they may have co-existed.
http://www.jckonline.com/2015/05/08/jeweler-made-this-bracelet-40000-years-ago
http://qha.com.ua/world-s-oldest-pyramid-found-in-crimea-116152en.html
Apparently over 30 of them scattered around Crimea and the Ukraine looking at 1.4 Mill years old.
Why the interest in control of that part of the world. ?
So possibly not impossible, but not as the true believers would believe
What part of the math that 65,000,000 years does NOT equal 1,400,000 years do you not understand? Ignoring the fact that certain dinosaurs (birds) have always been with us, the “dinosaurs” that nearly everyone thinks of when they hear the word (and that Jesus rode according to the folks at the Creation Museum) NEVER coexisted with any species of man. The earliest “men” go back no more than about 3,000,000 years.