One In Four Americans Thinks The Sun Orbits The Earth

One In Four Americans Thinks The Sun Orbits The Earth
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You might want to be sitting down for this one...

Just read that again...

An incredible 26% of people surveyed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science appear to be completely unaware a fundamental truth first proposed in 1543 by Nicolaus Copernicus.

And it doesn't stop there - only 48% think that human beings "developed from earlier species of animals", or "evolution" as it were.

The Big Bang theory also took a hammering with a paltry 39% thinking the universe began with a huge explosion.

More encouragingly for our trans-atlantic cousins, 84% know that the centre of the Earth is very hot and 83% know the continents have been moving for millions of years.

But we Europeans shouldn't smirk too much - a survey conducted in the EU in 2005 found 66% of people thought the Sun orbited the Earth.