Since so many people believe in creationism, shouldn’t it be taught as well just to be fair?
According to a March 5, 2001 Gallup poll conducted in the U.S.A., 45% of the respondents agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.” Thirty seven percent answered that evolution happened, but God guided the process, while 12% agreed with the statement that life evolved over millions of years and that God had nothing to do with it. (Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, p. 292)
Just because something is popular doesn’t make it right. Science succeeds or fails on the evidence alone, not on popular opinion. It doesn’t matter if 1% or 100% of the population accept a scientific theory, what makes a theory accepted in science is facts, evidence, and repeatability of experiments.
According to a National Science Foundation poll taken in 2002, sixty percent of the respondents believe in ESP, 70% think that magnetic therapy is scientific, 40% think that astrology is scientific, and 88% think that alternative medicines are a viable why to treat illness (Shermer, How We Believe, p. 246-247). If we are going to allow nonscientific ideas into classrooms based solely on popular opinion, then these ideas should be included too since they have just about as many or even more believers than creationism.
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