If this happened in the United States, the "pro-science" blogs would undoubtedly be blaming it on the Creationists and religion. Since they can't, I don't expect any "pro-science" blog to mention it.
/
HT: angryoldfatman
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July 29th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Why can't this be blamed on the creationists? It's fun to blame things on creationists. For all we know the ignorant man is a creationist and the audience his creationist friends. Or maybe they are all CIA agents out to make France look bad.
Are you saying you're not pro-science?
Comment by Raevmo — July 29, 2007 @ 7:23 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
That's amazing. I'd be very interested to see the very same question posed in different cultures…it would actually be a decent test of comparative scientific literacy.
Comment by bipod — July 29, 2007 @ 8:21 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Is Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine?
http://blogs4brownback.wordpre...
That should raise a few chuckles!
Comment by salimfadhley — July 29, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
It's even worse than you think. There is also a mistake in the translation I believe. The question "what rotates around the earth is nonsensical as rotation refers to a body's spin on its axis. "What revolves around the earth is what I think gravite autour de la Terre" must mean.
So, even the person(s) formulating the question or translating it (both no doubt being French) are also complete dolts in addition the contestant, his girlfriend, the host and half of the audience!
Why does France have a seat on the UN Secuity Council and the billion plus people of India do not?
Comment by Stuart Harris — July 29, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Oh, and another thing. Note that the guy walked away with 1500 Euros! He must have answered something correct in a prior question or two. What could those questions have possibly been?
Comment by Stuart Harris — July 29, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
The French are adept at looking bad without any help from US.:grin:
Comment by Bradford — July 29, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
According to Snopes, the clip is for real. Amazing. 56% of audience thought the sun orbits the earth. 2% thougth it was Mars. Luckily, nobody was dumb enough to pick Venus. That is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
Comment by Jehu — July 29, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
July 29th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Hi Raevmo,
I think you need a little context (in France, only 10% of the population denies evolution). What's ironic is the way the "pro-science" crowd abandons the scientific approach in order to make creationists into a swarm of bogey-men.
Comment by MikeGene — July 29, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
July 30th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and throughout the clip I was sure the poor man just had a case of nerves disengaging his brain. But the audience shattered that theory.
Comment by onething — July 30, 2007 @ 12:24 am
July 30th, 2007 at 3:54 am
The audience has gotten questions wrong before and the host was even hinting at it: "It looks very divided!". That's not the type of question I would have trusted any audience with.
Comment by BoZ3MaN — July 30, 2007 @ 3:54 am
July 30th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Don't be so anti-science, Mike!
As the Council of Europe has clearly showed, creationism is spreading within Europe, sowing "doubt and bewilderment in the minds of many young and inexperienced individuals". If that ain't doubt and bewilderment, I don't know what is.
Comment by Krauze — July 30, 2007 @ 10:38 am
July 30th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Thanks, MG!
LOL! Yeah, it's a science question, you wouldn't want to trust a bunch of Europeans (who have science literacy far above and beyond Americans, according to at least one regular commenter here on TT) to tell you the correct answer.
Comment by angryoldfatman — July 30, 2007 @ 11:08 am
July 30th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I'd like to see this particular question on the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?". That would be an entertaining experiment to say the least.
A personal poll at home: my nine-year-old son (soon to be a fifth-grader) easily got this one right.
Comment by angryoldfatman — July 30, 2007 @ 11:11 am
July 30th, 2007 at 11:50 am
I had to fight hard to restrain my laughter, so I didn't bother the other people here at the library. But I'm curious: If we took a poll of Americans on this question, what would the answer be?
Comment by Bilbo — July 30, 2007 @ 11:50 am
July 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Bilbo:
Bilbo, ten minutes later I'm still busting a gut! Get a life, enjoy it!
Comment by bFast — July 30, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
July 30th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I wonder if there's any chance that the way the statement was worded made it a little ambiguous as to which body was doing the 'rotating.' I still think most people know this.
Comment by onething — July 30, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
July 30th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
OneThing, "I still think most people know this." How do you know that most French people know this? Are you French?
Comment by bFast — July 30, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
July 30th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I'm not French but I wonder if anyone speaks it well enough to say whether it's possible the wording was ambiguous. Yes, my assumption is that general public knowledge throughout Europe won't be that different from Americans. I think most Americans know it. Is it really possible the French are significantly less educated? Is it possible there's a worse school system than the one I attended?
Comment by onething — July 30, 2007 @ 10:28 pm
July 31st, 2007 at 9:54 am
A survey on Americans' belief in Heliocentrism:
http://orgtheory.wordpress.com...
More than 25% of us still don't believe it.
Now what if they had been given a multiple choice survey, where they had to pick between the Sun, Moon, Venus, or Mars?
Would we do any better than the French?
Comment by Bilbo — July 31, 2007 @ 9:54 am
July 31st, 2007 at 10:17 am
onething Says:
Either that or the other possibility I mentioned in the open thread where I posted this video - that the audience knew the correct answer and wanted to make the contestant lose.
Both possibilities say a lot about the differences between American and European societies.
Comment by angryoldfatman — July 31, 2007 @ 10:17 am
July 31st, 2007 at 10:42 am
This reminds me of the notorious opening scene of a short film done by the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the late 80's. In it, Harvard students who have just graduated are asked to explain the cause of the seasons. Almost all of them give the wrong answer.
You can watch it here for free if you register.
Comment by keiths — July 31, 2007 @ 10:42 am
July 31st, 2007 at 10:49 am
If only… if only there were some way to compare the scientific literacy of Americans and Europeans, some way to cut through the jingoistic blather about how the speaker's nation is obviously awesome, and so is his nine year old kid.
Oh, nifty, there is. (Data from 2004 (U.S.) and 2005 (E.U.).) Feel free to ignore the questions which conflict with your religious beliefs and focus on the ones that don't. Third down in the right column is the "does the earth go 'round the sun, or vice versa?" question; the U.S. beats the E.U. as a whole by five percentage points. (Note that the report elsewhere states that there's considerable variation within the E.U.; this can't be mapped directly onto France's status.) This is, coincidentally, the same size as the gap that exists (in the other direction) between the U.S. and E.U. beliefs that lasers work by focusing sound waves.
I should point out that these were true-false questions, and that the results would likely look more dismal if given in a multiple-choice format. Even in the given format, you'd still have more than a one-in-four chance of picking a random American or European who'd get that one wrong.
The report also notes that these figures were very different only a few years ago, with the U.S. strongly leading the E.U. in literacy on pretty much everything; the E.U. has made gains in the public's scientific literacy which the U.S. has not. (See the 2004 figure, relying on 2001 data.)
Comment by grendelkhan — July 31, 2007 @ 10:49 am
July 31st, 2007 at 10:52 am
Also, elephants are larger than the moon.
Comment by grendelkhan — July 31, 2007 @ 10:52 am
July 31st, 2007 at 11:50 am
grendelkhan,
Luckily for all of us, that one is a hoax.
Comment by keiths — July 31, 2007 @ 11:50 am
July 31st, 2007 at 12:39 pm
keiths: Aaagh! It's a shop. I should have known from the pixels, and also from having seen a number of shops in my time.
How embarrassing for me. Of course, it could all be part of the Snopes conspiracy.
Comment by grendelkhan — July 31, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
July 31st, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I think some people are missing the point of this thread. It was stated at the beginning:
Comment by MikeGene — July 31, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
July 31st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
But MikeGene, they've already commented on it by not commenting on it, because studies by completely unbiased people have shown that the U.S. public is scientifically illiterate because of religion and European public is scientifically illiterate because it ships high-level students to the U.S., which it does because the U.S. is inferior.
Comment by angryoldfatman — July 31, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
August 1st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Mike, I got your point. Unfortunately, we've had people jumping to the conclusion that the French or Europeans are more scientifically illiterate than Americans. I maintain that we Americans are just as scientifically illiterate. But I agree that belief or non-belief in Creationism or ID probably has little to do with our beliefs regarding other areas of science.
Comment by Bilbo — August 1, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
August 1st, 2007 at 5:25 pm
angryoldfatman
Okay, I know you are being sarcastic but it may not be obvious to others. The fact is the United States leads the world in scientific literacy. If Americans were not penalized for rejecting evolution they would lead the world by an even larger margin.
http://pressesc.com/0117172917...
Comment by Jehu — August 1, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
August 1st, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Hey, look what else was on the site Jehu linked to:
http://pressesc.com/news/80931...
Silly atheists caring for the poor while they could be making so much more caring for the rich.
Comment by Raevmo — August 1, 2007 @ 5:43 pm
August 1st, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Hi Raevmo,
Good on them.
Following you off-topic for a moment I thought I'd note that being religious, especially Christian or Muslim, significantly increases the odds that a doctor will do pro-bono work and non-medical volunteer work (as opposed to just having a lower-paying practice among the underserved).
http://www.medscape.com/viewar...
http://www.acperesearch.net/oc...
Those who volunteer more also donate more:
http://www.medscape.com/viewar...
Comment by Pez — August 1, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:06 am
The question seems quite clear: "What gravitates around the earth?" Does France have a version of Jeopardy? I think that "Millionaire tends to attract a dumb audience in the first place. This is so because the questions are so much simpler than those (answers) given on a show like Jeopardy. Game shows nowadays seem to gravitate towards wider audiences, and as such, tend to dumb-it-down. It would be no different here. I think an American Millionaire audience would fare no better. It is not necessarily a reflection of Americans in general - just Americans who want to be on that particular show. Still funny, though.
Comment by Randy — August 3, 2007 @ 2:06 am