Why Won't Creationists Learn?

Hi, I just finished reading through the thread, and I think there are some great observations. Charles Knight is esp. acute in his psychological observations about the fear of existential consequences: maintaining an honest ignorance in the face of immensity is stern stuff.Another consideration is the broader streak of anti-intellectualism: from the parodic absent-minded professor to the science geek cliche (smart but he doesn't get laid--pre dot.com boom, anyway ); from "an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing" to "street smarts beat book smarts." An intelligence in the higher percentiles is necessary to do professional science, and by definition this leaves most people out.A related issue is class resentment--the feeling that they could have mastered all this, too, if they had gotten an even break (true, often enough). Much of the passion of fundamentalism comes from the poor and dispossessed: they are the folks who need the comfort of a better world to come. So their religion becomes their "this thing of ours," of grim necessity superior. It is only human to devalue what one cannot have.Another angle is that fundamentalists, even if they enjoy a good mind and reasonably good education, don't attempt to learn the basics because they know they can't catch up. The fundamentalist will never level the playing field with the physicist. That is an accurate perception. So why should they bother: this is, after all, not "their" passion--it is "yours." So the fundamentalists are easy prey to the jargon-laden propaganda of "creation scientists" and ID evangelists: sounds as much like science as real science does to the believing fundamentalist. So even quite intelligent people like Faith cut-and-paste material from ID web sites: they truly believe these are the authoritative rebuttals to evolution(ists). They soon sound like broken records because they cannot synthesize the ID/creationist positions or apply them to novel scenarios: you have to have some notion of the truth to be a liar, and a pretty sharp notion of the truth to be a good liar (e.g., "institute fellow").To me, political opportunism fuels much of the alarming growth in creationism and ID. Like the Republican Party in the 70s realizing that the race card was just the thing to bust up the Dixie Democrats' electoral lock on the South, or Bush supporters realizing that gay bashing would win over black and Hispanic votes in 2004, socially conservative politicans use the resentments and insecurities mentioned above, and those cited here by others: religion has always been a power base. If life is a grind, and your faith is all you've got, it isn't very difficult to rev up your rage at anyone who threatens it and to demonize their other political stands. So opposition to the Iraq calamity becomes not only treason but heresy.Besides, lady scientists are so sexy in that coolly superior way: fundamentalists hate that!This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 08-11-2005 09:44 PMThis message has been edited by Omnivorous, 08-11-2005 09:45 PM