In a recient poll published on Science.com shows just where your country stands on evolution… well, it does if your contry was one of the 34 polled.

Yay, USA… you came in 33rd out of 34. This left the country of Turkey with the title of “Most Scientifically Ignorant Country of those polled” (I know the religous right is pissed over this… they wanted that title!).

“American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalists, which is why Turkey and we are so close,” said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

I think there’s a better explanation for this sad, backwater showing of our science knowledge:

Adults in each country were asked whether they thought the statement, “Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals,” was true or false, or if they were unsure.

The study found that over the past 20 years:

• The percentage of U.S. adults who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40 percent.
• The percentage overtly rejecting evolution also declined, from 48 to 39 percent.
• And the percentage of adults who were unsure increased, from 7 to 21 percent.

Of the other countries surveyed, only Turkey ranked lower, with about 25 percent of the population accepting evolution and 75 percent rejecting it.