In an unusual last-minute edit that has drawn flak from the White House and science educators, a federal advisory committee omitted data on Americans' knowledge of evolution and the big bang from a key report. The data shows that Americans are far less likely than the rest of the world to accept that humans evolved from earlier species and that the universe began with a big bang.

The deleted text, obtained by ScienceInsider, does not differ radically from what has appeared in previous Indicators. The section, which was part of the unedited chapter on public attitudes toward science and technology, notes that 45% of Americans in 2008 answered true to the statement, "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals." The figure is similar to previous years and much lower than in Japan (78%), Europe (70%), China (69%), and South Korea (64%). The same gap exists for the response to a second statement, "The universe began with a big explosion," with which only 33% of Americans agreed.

they have to be a bit dim voting WG Bush in, not once but twice …

given that America has a much higher Christian population than the rest of the world, surly youd expect their answers to reflect this?

given that America has a much higher Christian population than the rest of the world, surly youd expect their answers to reflect this?

Well wait till 2012 When the Sarah Palin/ Michelle Bachmann presidential ticket will take dumbing down to a new low.

What is it with that party and demented MILFs? You'd be quite happy about it if they weren't so bloody world-dangerous

Well that is like saying that Christians are stupid. Many other countries have high levels of Christian worship but do not show this level of ignorance.

There is a certain brand of Christianity which rejects anything that is not in the Bible. They are very vocal, and seem to hold great sway over some aspects of public opinion.

Yes the Christian fundamentalists are a class of stupidity above any other.

Call me weird but in the grand hierarchy of stupidity I'd put strapping a load of explosives onto yourself and then blowing up yourself and a load of innocent people somewhere above believing the world was made in seven days.

That guy who wanted to blow up a plane but didn't make the bomb right so basically only managed to badly burn his own genitals? I'd say that's pretty stupid.

Stupid people are a universal constant. Sadly the US doesn't have some monopoly on stupidity, our own fair isle is doing very nicely in keeping our average up.