It does worrying that it seems American matches the fanaticism of middle eastern countries in terms of believing blindly in their religion.
Silly? maybe not.

But remembering how such big nation with so much (military/political) power believing something without any sort of questioning is so frightening.

The above link is to a study published in National Geographic News.

An interesting point is that while many of the countries studied have a majority who accept evolution as true, only 4 (Iceland, France, Sweden, Denmark) have over 80% of their population who accept it as true.

This flies in the face of the claim that “Creationism hardly exists outside the States”.

“The wealth and power of the creationist extreme Right” what a ridiculous statement. Demonising someone for differing opinions is something that shouldn’t happen in a democratic society, yet ironically this is where it would seem most prevalent.

How is the opposite not true in other cases? Why right on this very page there are people who believe in Evolution who want Creationism censored. There’s even a move in the European Council to try and ban Creationism altogether – a move one could easily label as fueled by “the wealth and power of the evolutionary left”.

The EU is much worse than the US for elitism. Treaties that change the political dynamic and affect national sovereignty are not even debated publicly. Only certain countries (read: Ireland) will allow their public to even vote on them.

Yes Australia does have a good system. But one must remember that the United States is a confederation of 50 sovereign commonwealths and states and a handful of territories – not a single state. The system could use a tweaking, but it is set up so that there is a better spread of power among all the states rather than just the biggest 5 – which is what the EU is shaping up to be.

Your nation has all sorts of contradictions. The US is allegedly a great democracy — yet merely having a semi popular third party candidate is enough to throw it out of whack.

Any sensible democracy would at least have Preferential Voting (the votes for the candidate with the least votes are distributed according to the voter’s second preference… and so on until one candidate has over 50% of the vote).

Australia’s system of requiring people to turn up to a polling place on election day (or face a small fine) has also been a good one. It means the parties can’t discourage particular demographics from turning out, and there’s never an excuse for long queues or form shortages as the numbers are always a known. I’ll also mention paper ballots (to help combat fraud) and our election results are generally known on election night. That’s the benefit of having a professionally run federal electoral commission.

From the outside, the US presidential election candidate selection process looks like a corruption competition (who can earn the most donations) and the election itself is a rorting competition. The wealth and power of the creationist extreme Right needs to be seen in the context of where it fits into that mess, not just how silly it makes Americans look once in a while.

And Richard Dawkins is not crazy? How can someone who would rather believe that aliens started life on earth than god not be deemed crazy – but worshiped as a demi-god in intellectual circles? Whether you believe in god or not is not my concern.

But does it not strike you that someone who would rather believe that ET created life and vehemently deny the existence of (a) god is just trying to escape something?

Also, It would seem that many forget that “Creationism” is neither an American invention nor solely an American belief. Simply because Americans are allowed to voice opinions and debate more freely than we in the elitist EU, we mistake their freedom of opinion for idiocy and European science’s sheep-like behaviour as established intelligence.

Yes US foreign policy also differs to the EUs, but then again the EU is a joke in this field. Most (not all) European members of the LEGAL war in Afghanistan refuse to be sent to trouble zones. European troops watched in lethargy as thousands were massacred in Srebrenica. Now a few troops are thrown into Chad 100km from those they’re designated to protect (and 700km from the nearest large airfield) as a token to show people that we’re “serious” about Darfur.

The US is not perfect, but get off your high horses please.

Stephen – Ireland

The fact that such a museum even exists is a testament to how backwards we have become.

There is a progressive, secular, repsectful America. Many of us are against the death penalty, and for universal healthcare (although perhaps nto how it is implemented elsewhere). Many of us respect diplomacy over war. Many of us respect (and perhaps even admire) our European friends.

The bottom line is that this America is at risk, right now. I can only hope that the world doesn’t fall into the kind of religious extremism that seems to be so prevalent in my country right now. Even if that means a world without the US.