to be really irritated with comments like this

[Leati]

The other day I started a thread about gun policy in the US. I am from the US but agree with alot of you ladies about the US gun policy being to relaxes. One of the ladies suggested that we should change the law. I tried to explain that the law was protected by the United States constitution and therefor it was not very easy to change. Then someone who had not been part of conversation up until that point get on and starts writing outragously insulting comments

Copied from comments of previous

Of course the Americans want guns. They are a huge country with lots of space, animals, wilderness much much less sophisticated and indeed behind the times than the UK and most of Europe with their history of cow boys and some very simple people living there. Obviously they therefore hang on to their guns. Our police can police the 60m people here in the UK without guns on the whole and as there are few guns to be had we have fewer deaths and murders. This is one reason most of us choose to stay in the UK rather than move to the US.

and then the user writes this

Americans are often simple people a bit behind Europe, of course they are. You'll catch up eventually but you even have the death penalty. You and China... we despair over here and so many believing the planet is 6000 years old only. It's a kind of simpleness which in some ways is quite sweet but you've a long way to go to be in the same advanced mindset of most Europeans.

I just have to ask...where does she come up with this crap

I do wonder how Gallup adjusts for people reacting to being asked stupid questions, though. If someone with a clipboard asked me 'do you believe in fairies' I might be tempted to say yes just to muck their results up!

It's a problem emanating from the 'flyover' states, isn't it?

Edam, do you not believe in fairies then?

Re: schools teaching - as I was Googling just now, a lot of most recent articles were reporting that various state and federal juducial decisions have recently effectively outlawed the teaching of creationism in public schools, so maybe the tide is turning.

was it is xenia making the comments?
if so ignore, ignore, ignore.

you should see what she says about us sahms! we are thick, prostitutes who are doing our children a disservice and when we are old our children will look down us for our choices.

she's our little mumnset eccentricity-like the ghost in the attic! or the mad uncle who wanders round talking to himself.

Message withdrawn

Yes, I am 100% right and the others are wrong. JP's post says it all. Okay so 46% of the Americans are really really stupid and think the earth is about 6000 years old. Presumably Americans also despairs of those 50% of their brethern. It's a huge huge number. It really really appalls me. Why isn't it something like 0.01% who are complete nutters but it isn't. It's almost half the people in your land. It defies belief. Something must be done about it and urgently. That's the issue which needs to be addressed not by me telling a US person truths they find hard to believe. Go do the research.

Secondly China and the US view with each other for the people they kill using the death penalty. They are the worst nations on earth for this and many many of us are absolutely, disgusted so many Americans are behind the death penality. it is uncivilised and completely unnecessary on this planet in 2007. I bet most Americans think it's just great you kill those committed of some crimes. I think you'll catch up eventually but you have a long way to go. Pity we lost the war of independence. Of course it's a huge country and I know many Americans who campaign about all these issues and about G Bay (which has destroyed much of the US international credibility already) but on the whole so many believing those biblical "truths" is just weird and very simple minded.

Feel free to criticise the British. We don't mind it at all.

love this review of the Creationist Museum

I do believe that alot of American believe in evalution through God. I think the way I have hear it put, "is who is to say what the meaning of a day is, at the time the world was created. 24 hrs days are a man made creation. " I do believe that is how most Christian Americans mix thier religion with scientific fact.

But Xenia, your posts read as though you hold all Americans individually responsible for these attitudes. I quite agree with you about creationism, and about the death penalty, but you must be aware that there are literally millions of Americans who despise these things too. There's no need to be personally unpleasant about all Americans.

Xenia
Where did you see anywhere that Americans think the Earth is 6000 yrs old. This is crazy.

Message withdrawn

well, creationism clearly states that the world is 6000 years old. x number of Americans believe in creationism, ergo x number of people believe that the world is only 6000 years old.

And one more thing to clarify, had the same question been asked at a the democratic debate, I seriously don't believe anyone would have raised thier hands.

The republican party gets it support from two places the Zealously Religious and Big Business.

Okay,
Now I think I understand what is going on here. The majority of Americans do believe in God and Christ, yes. But I googled creatism and apparently that is the term to used to describe people who believe in Christ. But then there is also a specific religion that of creatism that believes in this 6000 yr stuff.

I think you should all ask your American friends if they believe that the Earth is only 6000 yrs old or that dinosaurs were put on Earth to test faith. I think you will be suprised to find out they really dont believe this stuff.

Try creationism instead of creatism

I haven't heard of 'creatism'. Creationism isn't just another word for Christian. It is a belief in the biblical account of creation.

'I am 100% right..' Oh Xenia, get over yourself! (I wonder - have you ever NOT been 100% right about something, at least in your own mind)

I don't dispute some of your criticisms of the USA, but you really do a) massively oversimplify things, and b) state your argument in such a pompous and arrogant manner that your message often gets lost.

Young Earth Creationists (YEC) claim a literal interpretation of the Bible as a basis for their beliefs. They believe that the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, that all life was created in six literal days, that death and decay came as a result of Adam & Eve's Fall, and that geology must be interpreted in terms of Noah's Flood. However, they accept a spherical earth and heliocentric solar system. Young-Earth Creationists popularized the modern movement of scientific creationism by taking the ideas of George McCready Price, a Seventh Day Adventist, and publishing them in The Genesis Flood (Whitcomb & Morris 1961).

This is what you are referring to I believe. I just found it. I am still researching.

so let me ask you guy this. Are you guys atheist or do you believe in some sort of religion.

That would depend who you asked.
For more wierd religious beliefs that seem to have taken hold in America lets take a peek at Scientology
Or Kaballah (sp?), the religion you have to buy your way into.

Young Earth Creationists (YEC), the largest and most vocal group of creationists active in America, rely upon the most literal interpretation of the Bible in comparison to other forms of special creationism. At its heart, the Young Earth Creationist movement is a movement of conservative Christians. It is rare to find a Young Earth Creationist making a case either for creationism or against evolution without doing so from a deliberately religious and, usually, fundamentalist Christian position

My understanding is that the group that holds this position is just one religion. We have thousands upon thousands of religions here.

I think you may also find that when Xenia says I am 100% right she is probably being sarcastic/silly. Xenia?????