Response From Iceland

Last month we told you about a study of Icelandic attitudes towards the theory of evolution. Egill sent us this email from Iceland in response. There are a few minor grammatical errors, but far fewer than there would be if I tried to write a response in Icelandic!

Hi there I somehow stumbled upon your webpage about the icelandic opinion on evolution and found it very interesting. If you have been seeking information I guess you´ll know the following things. Almost everyone in Iceland speaks excellent english.  You could therefor have the lectures and questions in english to save money.  This though dosent apply to the older generations (60 years + although many of them speak english). You choice of the description "a study of why Icelandic opinions are so different from American opinions on certain important topics." would awoke great interest amongst Icelanders and if you set it up in a way that it´s not to time consuming you probably would able to gather some sum of people. The subject of evolution here does not come up oftenly as it´s thought of as a fact of life.  That it is an issue of debate in the states is thought to be amusing and looked at as a symbol of Americas backwardness.  America is though in many fields admired here though president Bush has done much ruin that.  Icelanders see them self as very liberal and well educated with a very open and tolerant society.  Gay rights are among the highest here in the world and the wellfare system is strong. I am fairly sure that the outcome will be the same, but I still think this is a very intersting thing to check out. I wish you all the best. yours sincerely, Egill

This is consistent with what I encountered when I was in Iceland in 2001. In particular, it is significant that the subject of evolution is not often discussed because it is assumed to be “a fact of life.” We are fairly sure that if the well-educated people of Iceland examined the theory critically the outcome would be that they would conclude that science is against evolution. We are now more anxious than ever to put that to the test.

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