Evolution, Global Warming, Doomsday and the Afterlife

About that title, Carnac the Magnificent would pause because he would at least be mildly confused as to his possible response. In time, he utters, "Not the life progression for Americans" and opens the envelope. There is only a trickle of laughter because the audience does not quite understand the connection. Johnny Carson grimaces and extends a particularly invective Middle Eastern curse.

Yes, Carnac would have been right, for the above title is not a sequential prediction of your past, present and future, if you are the typical American. But shockingly enough, not for the reasons you might think. The punch line comes at the end when you learn that we (not me, but the majority) believe in only one, well, maybe two, of the following: evolution, global warming, doomsday and the afterlife.

I recently wrote a book partially treating evolution and the afterlife, and an earlier one analyzing global warming and possible doomsdays, and have lately been busy reading up, responding to and organizing virtual discussion forums on the economic collapse, peak oil, global warming and doomsday. The participants tend to be the more scholarly facet of our society and hardly represent the masses. Yet, many of them have devoted their professional lives to these subjects and are the best and brightest, so their views are important and can't be totally discarded.

I would say something like 10% to 20% of this eclectic group actually believe the combined crush of the economic collapse, peak oil and global warming will be so severe that society as we know it will NEVER recover, our lifestyles will be seriously compromised and survival could become a life-or-death issue. Some have purchased land and are initiating self-reliant communities. There are blogs to prepare individuals living in these uncertain times. A few of my friends are actually looking forward to this new kind of adventure. Most in this forum, though, are like me, in that we rather enjoy our current mode of life, but are beginning to get mildly concerned.

I tried searching for a poll on what real Americans think about this coming doom, but couldn't find one with a scenario reasonably close to the above. Sure, there are the Biblical ones, and, well, we are a religious country, plus the Large Hadron Collider still has that miniscule potential and the SciFi Channel in 2006 had a countdown to our mass extinction. However, as none of the respected economists or politicians I see on television seems particularly concerned about this worst-case option, I take satisfaction in maintaining a similar insouciance.

Anyway, how can anyone get so traumatized by this latest series of existing and potential catastrophes, for in the 70's we muddled through the population bomb, limits to growth, potential nuclear winter, the Vietnam War, acid rain and two energy crises...and somehow recovered. In fact, nearly two decades after the Second Energy Crisis, crude oil in 1998 fell to the lowest on historical record ($15.52/barrel in 2008 dollars, even lower than the $18.29 of 1972), and there was nothing government, academics or politics did to orchestrate this drop. Further, another decade later the United States is now supremely unchallenged and oil is heading back to almost historic lows. Nuclear holocaust? Iran and North Korea will not precipitate a World War 3. Aside for this inconvenient economic collapse, things seem generally okay today.

All this led me to think, though, whether this small minority planning for the end (of life as we like it), might, in fact, be right? Let's look at religion, for example. The surveys vary a bit, but for the longest time, something on the order of 90% of Americans have said they believe in God and some form of Afterlife. Of that remaining 10% who don't, I would not be surprised if many of them are amused and disappointed at the same time that their friends and family can be so deluded. Is that what this doomsday group thinks of the population at large in terms of the coming downfall?

Changing the subject a wee bit, we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin. By now, everyone must believe in evolution, right? Wrong! Two-thirds of Americans actually know that God created us within the past 10,000 years, so does this mean that only 33% of us accept evolution? Well, it's a bit more complicated then that, but, yet, alarming. Live Science reports on a poll of 34 countries, placing the U.S. second from the bottom (Turkey was lower at 26% on belief in evolution, while the European countries and Japan were just the opposite, with 60-90% in the evolution camp). I go into vivid detail on this subject in Chapter 5 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.

Okay, so much for that controversial subject, but, then, by now most of us must be convinced about global climate change. Actually, yes, 82% of Americans do believe, with, interestingly enough, 91% being Democrats and 72% Republicans. That was a 2007 survey. A 2009 poll broke this down to 44% saying long-term planetary trends are causing this change, with 41% blaming it on human activity. Only 21% of Republicans think that we are at fault. Also, 54% say the media exaggerate the dangers. In other words, most Americans don't think their use of fossil fuels is causing this Greenhouse Effect. They blame nature.

To summarize, the majority of Americans believe in both creationism and an afterlife, the potential of some sort of religious doom, and think they are not causing global warming. So the title of this article should have been: "Creationism, Doomsday and the Afterlife," to more closely reflect life in the USA. You now should have a better understanding about why we are in deep...(feel free to add your own odious term). So what has this got to do with the economy? Go back to the beginning and try again, or revert to my earlier HuffPost introduction to this subject.

Did we become the greatest country ever because of our beliefs? Certainly not entirely, which gives me hope that the best is yet to come.

 

Comments

[Patrick Takahashi - Huffpost Blogger]

If anyone bothered to reread this article, then, still not sure how Evolution, Global Warming, Doomsday and the Afterlife affected the economy, went on to my earlier posting on this subject, and yet could not figure out the connection, welcome to the real world.

I taught a course called "Technology and Society" for a number of years in the seventies. We covered all the subjects mentioned above. The final essay question I generally gave, warning the student not to spend more than 5 minutes on it, was, relate the following three terms to the purpose of the course. I tried to pick three words that could not possibly have any connection. The responses were amazing. They almost all came up with sensible responses, with the poorer students being the most inspired.

In a way, the resolution of our current crises will call for creativity of this sort. The fact that that our beliefs are all over the spectrum can be a plus as we attempt to arrive at a solution. Then again, I wonder if a country like Singapore, which has a regimented mentality focused on realistic answers, might have a better chance at solving this puzzle. Perhaps this benevolent dictatorship model is something we might want to consider. At the terminal extreme, maybe Jesus will come.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Perhaps this benevolent dictatorship model is something we might want to consider."

Better not. I am afraid we lack the "benevolence" needed to shape it into anything else than hell on earth.

[jimspy]

Count me among the 10-20% who have harbored these fears for some time. Creationism is one sign of the coming Idiocracy (a movie everyone should see), which in turn leaves me very pessimistic that we will solve, or even acknowledge, Global Warming, or get past Peak Oil. I am slowly becoming something I used to loathe, an intellectual elitist; that is to say, I don't see enough intelligence among Americans to overcome these problems in time. Having seen my countrymen vote for George W. Bush TWICE; seeing the lurch towards the anti-science Right engendered by Reagan/Lim­baugh/Ging­rich; seeing the discouraging polling on Evolution....sorry, but I think it all spells Doomsday for "The American Way Of Life." It may be time to consider a move to Scandinavia. I hate cold weather, but then, in a few years...

[c1ee]

W00t, touched on all the things I have been concerned with about America. Let me just say I'm sure glad I'm Australian.

[KillTheMessenger]

So you are, on average and according to the news, just as ignorant about global warming as our US friends over here? Until recently, Australia has not been an exceptional citizen in that regard, either. Although, as of lately the drought and the wildfires might have made a few people think a little harder.

[dobermanmacleod]

It doesn't come as any surprise that most people aren't in touch with reality. For instance take the following quotation:

"Few seem to realise that the present IPCC models predict almost unanimously that by 2040 the average summer in Europe will be as hot as the summer of 2003 when over 30,000 died from heat. By then we may cool ourselves with air conditioning and learn to live in a climate no worse than that of Baghdad now. But without extensive irrigation the plants will die and both farming and natural ecosystems will be replaced by scrub and desert. What will there be to eat? The same dire changes will affect the rest of the world and I can envisage Americans migrating into Canada and the Chinese into Siberia but there may be little food for any of them." --Dr James Lovelock's lecture to the Royal Society, 29 Oct. '07

If we can't depend upon our scientists to realise reality, then how can the average joe be expected to? By the way, for a taste of what is to come read this article ("Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production") that predicts a dramatic drop in agricultural this year due to drought. How many people realise that? Reality isn't that easy to grasp is it?

[Boxorox]

The average American has a moderate amount of intelligence, but that is valuable only to the extent that each individual has had a proper education. But what is an "average" American? Who knows...
At any rate, in mainstream life, I definitely find that intelligent people I know--
1) Do not believe in Creationism - they laugh at the idea. Evolution is more than just a theory; it's the only possible explanation for the present status of life on this planet,
2) Do not believe in the idea that humans influence climate. In fact, an overwhelming majority of them severely doubt that any global warming is presently taking place, though they do understand that global warming is part of the natural way of earthly processes, which also means that global cooling is part of the equation.

[doriath22]

Scientific illiteracy is endemic in this country. That is why it is so easy for the shouting class (Clear Channel, Faux News, etc.) to convince so many people that AGW is a "hoax"

[mjt218]

I think putting "Scientific" in front of illiteracy was a bit generous on your part . . .

[KillTheMessenger]

You obviously do not know "average" Americans. I just ran across a financial type in upper management who at my explanations that the glaciers in Antarctica are a couple of hundred thousand years old asked "So the Earth is really 200,000 years old?". I didn't know what to respond to that without deeply hurting his ego and so I ignored his question as if I hadn't heard it... I simply expect an otherwise intelligent adult to know that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old and how that fits into the roughly 13 billions years for the age of the universe. And, no, I will not start lecturing an adult about it outside of the internet. It's a waste of my time and theirs and it leaves everyone with a rather bad aftertaste.