Does the earth orbit the sun? (THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER)
So, as previously mentioned, i have long wondered if anybody doesn’t believe that the earth orbits the sun–let alone the 20% or so that i’ve heard rumors of–and i decided to do something about it.
So now the results are in. Take a moment, think about it. What do you think the percentages are? I mean, this is almost as basic as asking people if they believe in gravity.
Which, you know, some people don’t.
Turn’s out, 14% of the 200 people asked by facebook don’t believe that the earth orbits the sun. That’s almost 1 out of every 6 people! Here is the results page, if you don’t believe me. It’s got nifty breakdowns by age and sex.
I tried to make the poll as simple as possible, and as fair as possible. I only polled people who included the bible in their favorite books because until fairly recently facebook was a college-only site, and still most of their users are college attendees or graduates. People who would be more likely than the average person to have at least heard of Isaac Newton, inventor of gravity. But still, do you think it was fair?
Statistically thinking, i’m pretty sure that a poll that only asks 200 people has got error rates of +/-5%, so the real number for this demographic should be something between 9% and 19%. That is to say, between 9 and 19 percent of people don’t believe that the earth orbits the sun. Jesus wept.