My creation myth can beat your creation myth…..

A recent Gallup poll reports that almost half of Americans don't believe the scientifically established fact that humans spontaneously evolved from other life forms during the last 5 million years.

Gallup's current figure (46%) has been roughly unchanged since Gallup started asking the "creation" questions 30 years ago.

Here's the statement that 46% of Americans say they believe: "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so."

I accept the reality that different human beings have different beliefs. Some of my beliefs are not exactly mainstream.....I also accept as an axiom that beliefs should be defensible...

Here's an explicit question Gallup has been forgetting to ask for the last 30 years:

"Do you believe that nearly all of the world's biologists and chemists and physicists and social scientists, who have studied and proved the theory of evolution, are dead wrong?"

I'll leave for another time, preferably in a place with a crackling wood fire and a good single malt Scotch at hand, the rational discussion about ignoring science. I'll plan to block out the entire evening….

Here's another explicit question Gallup has been forgetting to ask for the last 30 years:

"Do you believe that your creation myth is right, and the creation myths of every other religion and culture in the world are dead wrong?"

I do suspect that we would see some surprisingly conflicted answers if all of those questions were asked at the same time.

It's one thing to believe, or tell your friends and the phone interviewer that you believe, the American biblical Christian story of creation.

It's another thing to believe without proof that the significantly different non-scientific creation stories believed by billions of people in other cultures on the planet are dead wrong.

There are billions of believers, but they can't all be right.

There's something wrong with that.