1/3 Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth?

[Eldritch]

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20110211&t=2&i=334386658&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2011-02-11T163620Z_01_BTRE71A1A4O00_RTROPTP_0_RUSSIA

Does the sun revolve around the Earth?

One in every three Russians thinks so, a spokeswoman for state pollster VsTIOM said on Friday.

In a survey released this week, 32 percent of Russians believed the Earth was the center of the Solar system; 55 percent that all radioactivity is man-made; and 29 percent that the first humans lived when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

"It's really quite amazing," spokeswoman Olga Kamenchuk said of the survey that polled 1,600 people across Russia's regions in January, with a 3.4-percent margin of error.

"All of them (the questions) were absolutely obvious... the data speaks of the low levels of education in the country."

However, people tend to forget what they have been taught at school if it is not part of daily use, she added: "I wonder whether our colleagues in other countries would find any different."

The study also found that women were more likely than men to believe the scientific fallacies.

From Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/11/us-poll-education-odd-idUSTRE71A4OI20110211).

[The Ripper]

Those American missionaries are having a greater impact anyone could have imagined. :p

[Wyn]

Fools. It revolves around Mother Russia.

[Basil]

Those American missionaries are having a greater impact anyone could have imagined. :p

Americans look the smartest ones according to the polls, but I believe it varies much depending on the sample. At least Russians are on par with the British two thirds of whom know the correct answer as well. But bearing in mind that the results below are 15 years old, it could turn out that the Russians are even smarter now compared to the others than it seems.

Probing a more universal measure of knowledge, Gallup also asked the following basic science question, which has been used to indicate the level of public knowledge in two European countries in recent years: "As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth?" In the new poll, about four out of five Americans (79%) correctly respond that the earth revolves around the sun, while 18% say it is the other way around. These results are comparable to those found in Germany when a similar question was asked there in 1996; in response to that poll, 74% of Germans gave the correct answer, while 16% thought the sun revolved around the earth, and 10% said they didn't know. When the question was asked in Great Britain that same year, 67% answered correctly, 19% answered incorrectly, and 14% didn't know.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx

[Ivanushka-supertzar]

Wait... What? Earth revolves around the sun? No fucking way!

[Guapo]

The earth is flat dickheads.

[antonio]

As long as scientifics/astronoms know the real stuff, I dont mind people thinking the opposite: for what I know, thinking Sun revolved around Earth had never a single burden or negative effect on everyday live.