I read this headline from The Texas Tribune today. Texans: Dinosaurs, Humans Walked the Earth at Same Time. The headline drew me in. I predisposed to believe any odd story about Texas, but I did not think ignorance on this scale was possible outside of the third world. The poll was developed by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune. It suggests that a third of the people in Texas believe that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth together and that a third don’t know. That’s over eight million people or 16 million if you count the dummies. How can this be possible?
The question was simple: Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don't know.
I love the closing paragraph:
Prindle says the results recall a line from comedian Lewis Black. "He did a standup routine a few years back in which he said that a significant proportion of the American people think that the 'The Flintstones' is a documentary," Prindle says. "Turns out he was right. Thirty percent of Texans agree that humans and dinosaurs lived on the earth at the same time."
I have friends who live in Texas. They home school and are skeptical, so I have some hope.
