Polls: In Darwin's birthday year, people want to hear alternatives

The evil Discos sent me this:

Zogby Poll Shows Dramatic Jump in Number of Americans Who Favor Teaching
Both Sides of Evolution

Surprisingly Strong Support Seen Among Democrats and Liberals

A new Zogby poll on the eve of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday shows a dramatic rise in the number of Americans who agree that when biology teachers teach the scientific evidence for Darwin’s theory of evolution, they also should teach the scientific evidence against it.

Surprisingly, the poll also shows overwhelming support among self-identified Democrats and liberals for academic freedom to discuss the "strengths and weaknesses" evolution.

Over 78% of likely voters agree with teaching both the evidence for and against Darwin’s theory, according to the new national poll.

"This represents a dramatic 9-point jump from 2006, when only 69% of respondents in a similar poll favored teaching both sides," said Discovery Institue’s Dr. John West. "At the same time, the number of likely voters who support teaching only the evidence that favors evolution dropped 7 points from 21% in 2006 to 14.4% in 2009.

I am hardly surprised, and I mainly credit the New Atheist movement.

There is absolutely nothing like telling people they are not allowed to know something - to make sure that they want to know it.

Here's a test: Just tell people they are not allowed to know what really happened to the dinosaurs.

Suddenly, tons of people who never gave a bucket of dino doo-doo about dinosaurs are on the case big time, right? Like, what did happen?

Other polls relevant to the intelligent design controversy A summary of recent polls of US public opinion on the ID controversy

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: