The Survey: Every two years the National Science Foundation produces a report, Science and Engineering Indicators, which surveys the public’s attitudes toward science. The report found for instance, that the public’s opinion of scientists ranks at the top of 23 other occupations and there is broad support for public funding of science research. In spite of that, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, is unhappy because a section of the 2010 report about the public’s science literacy was omitted.

Dr. Krauss’ Complaint: In a Scientific American article, Dr. Krauss responded that every two years we relearn the sad fact that U.S. adults are less willing to accept evolution and the big bang as factual than adults in other industrial countries. Except for this time. Was there suddenly a quantum leap in U.S. science literacy? Sadly, no. Rather the National Science Board chose to leave that discussion these issues out of the 2010 edition, claiming the questions were flawed indicators of scientific knowledge because responses conflated knowledge and beliefs.

Is the Complaint Valid? The National Science Board was right that the section confused knowledge and beliefs. For example, there is evidence for the Big Bang theory and many people know about it, but they have not incorporated it into their beliefs. Only physicists and mathematicians would likely know what a singularity is, let alone believe the universe arose from one. Then, there is the problem of how the singularity came to be. Likewise, many people know of the adaptation of species to their environment such as increasing resistance of viruses and bacteria to antibiotics and of insects to DDT. They may also be aware of our ancestors such as Luci and Ardi and know of the evolution of the horse. However, if you insist that the spontaneous generation of life is part of evolution, it may be rejected. » Read more: Science Literacy and Beliefs