25% of Spaniards believe that the sun revolves around the Earth

A SURVEY commissioned by the Spanish government has discovered that a quarter of the population believes that the sun revolves around the earth, and nearly six million people deny the theory of evolution.

The publishers said the poll, entitled ‘What do you know about science?’ unveiled incredible results for a modern European country, and showed a worrying lack of scientific understanding.

The Survey of Social Perception of Science, presented this week by the Secretary of State for development and innovation, Carmen Vela, did however stress that Spain’s scientific literacy had improved since 2006, and that the average of correct answers had risen from 58 per cent to 70.

Some of the most alarming findings were that one third of Spaniards believed that humans coexisted with dinosaurs as in ‘The Flintstones,’ when in fact they were 60 million years apart, and that 25 per cent thought it was the Sun that revolved around the Earth and not vice versa.

In addition, only 46 per cent of people knew that antibiotics did not cure diseases caused by viruses, but only bacteria, and 11.5 per cent (six million people) believed that human race appeared rather than evolved.

The data, however, is far less distressing than in 2006, when only half of the population knew that men and women did not live alongside dinosaurs, and almost 40 per cent were unaware that our planet revolved around a star.