How We Believe_ Science and the Search for God - Michael Shermer [151]
Education: Americans with the highest levels of education are more likely than others to believe in the power of the mind to heal the body. On the other hand, belief in three of the phenomena tested goes up as the educational level of the respondent goes down: possession by the devil, astrology, and haunted houses. Importance of Religion: Perhaps not surprisingly, the major difference in belief in these phenomena by importance of religion focuses on the devil: 55 percent of those who say religion is very important in their daily lives say they believe in devil possession, compared to just 14 percent of those who say religion is “not very” important to them. Religion is also correlated with belief in extraterrestrials: Those for whom religion is very important are less likely to say they believe in beings from other worlds that may have visited this planet than are those who are less religious.
Figure 2. Changing belief in paranormal phenomena.
The change in belief percentages over the past decade are seen in Figure 2.
The National Science Foundation found similar percentages of belief in pseudoscience as the Gallup Pollsters did in belief in the paranormal. In April 2002, the NSF published their biennial report on the state of science understanding and public attitudes toward science, which included a section on the relationships between science and pseudoscience. The results were alarming:
30 percent of adult Americans believe that UFOs are space vehicles from other civilizations
60 percent believe in ESP
40 percent think that astrology is scientific
32 percent believe in lucky numbers
70 percent accept magnetic therapy as scientific
88 percent agree that alternative medicine is a viable means of treating illness
The NSF survey summarized the overall findings on pseudoscience this way:
Belief in pseudoscience, including astrology, extrasensory perception (ESP), and alien abductions, is relatively widespread and growing. For example, in response to the 2001 NSF survey, a sizable minority (41 percent) of the public said that astrology was at least somewhat scientific, and a solid majority (60 percent) agreed with the statement “some people possess psychic powers or ESP.” Gallup polls show substantial gains in almost every category of pseudoscience during the past decade. Such beliefs may sometimes be fueled by the media’s miscommunication of science and the scientific process.
As for alternative or complementary medicine, the NSF report highlighted their findings as such:
Alternative medicine, defined here as any treatment that has not been proven effective using scientific methods, has been gaining in popularity. One study documented a 50 percent increase in expenditures for alternative therapies and a 25 percent increuse in the use of alternativa therapies between 1990 and 1997. Also, more than two-thirds of those responding to the NSF survey said that magnetic therapy was at least somewhat scientific, although no scientific evidence exists to support claims about its effectiveness in treating pain or any other ailment.
Of the various alternative modalities, the survey reported magnets as the most popular. “Among those who reported using energy healing, the most frequently cited technique involved the use of magnets. In 2001, NSF survey respondents were asked whether or not they had heard of magnetic therapy, and if they had, whether they thought that it was very scientific, sort of scientific, or not at all scientific. A substantial majority of survey respondents (77 percent) had heard of magnetic therapy. Among all who had heard of this treatment, 14 percent said it was very scientific and another 54 percent said it was sort of scientific. Only 25 percent of those surveyed answered correctly, that is, that it is not at all scientific.”
Education by itself is no paranormal prophylactic. Although belief in ESP decreased