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   From: jow@ymail.com   
      
   Americans Believe God Created Earth 10,000 Years Ago   
      
   Americans believe God created the Earth and anatomically modern   
   humans, less than 10,000 years ago, according to a new Gallup   
   poll.   
      
   About half of Americans believe humans evolved over millions of   
   years, with most of those people saying that God guided the   
   process. Religious, less educated, and older respondents were   
   likelier to espouse a young Earth creationist view -- that life   
   was created some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago -- according to the   
   poll.   
      
   Though the percentage of people who believe in creationism has   
   changed little over the decades, the percentage of people who   
   believe humans evolved without God has more than doubled, and   
   the percentage who believe in God-guided evolution has   
   decreased. [Creationism vs. Evolution: 6 Big Battles]   
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   Does Believing in God Make You Dumb?	   
   Are you a dummy for believing in God? There's a new study out   
   whose authors claim to have found a correlation between   
   religion and a lower IQ.   
      
   Supernatural beliefs   
      
   Americans consistently report high levels of belief in the   
   supernatural. About 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles   
   and three-quarters believe in the virgin birth of Jesus,   
   according to a 2013 Pew survey.   
      
   At the same time, while most Americans have a healthy respect   
   for science, many could use a refresher course in the basics.   
   For instance, a 2014 National Science Foundation study found   
   that only three out of four Americans know that the Earth   
   revolves around the sun and not vice versa, and a large   
   percentage didn't know the Earth's core was hot. Large   
   percentages didn't know that the father's sperm determines a   
   baby's sex.   
      
   Evolving views?   
      
   As part of the Values and Beliefs Survey, Gallup called a   
   random sample of 1,028 landline and cellphone users and asked   
   them which of three descriptions most closely matched their   
   beliefs: that humans have developed over millions of years from   
   less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process; that   
   humans have developed over millions of years from less advanced   
   forms of life, but God had no part in this process; or that God   
   created human beings pretty much in their present form sometime   
   in the last 10,000 years or so. Gallup has asked people similar   
   questions since 1982.   
      
   About 42 percent espoused the creationist view presented,   
   whereas 31 percent said God guided the evolutionary process,   
   and just 19 said they believe evolution operated without God   
   involved.   
      
   Religion was positively tied to creationism beliefs, with more   
   than two-thirds of those who attend weekly religious services   
   espousing a belief in a young Earth, compared with just 23   
   percent of those who never go to church saying the same.   
   Is Religion Good for Your Brain?   
      
   Just over a quarter of those with a college degree hold   
   creationist beliefs, compared with 57 percent of people with   
   such views who had at most a high-school education, the poll   
   found.   
      
   Knowledge key   
      
   Most of the people who believed in evolution also said they   
   were knowledgeable about the theory, whereas those who said   
   they were not too familiar with the theory also were less   
   likely to believe in it.   
      
   Americans' belief in creationism is at odds with scientific   
   consensus. Almost all scientists who study human origins   
   believe that we evolved from other life-forms over millions of   
   years. In fact, humans, or individuals in the genus Homo, are   
   said to have emerged on Earth some 2.5 million years ago.   
      
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