One could dislocate one's shoulder patting oneself on the back like that. Of course gloxians (or perhaps the gloxese? Northern Land Massiganders either way) seem to lack an endoskeleton so dislocations might not be a big concern.

If people have a deep and abiding understanding of a cosmology that informs influence their lives on a personal level, it is fair to ask how others understanding of their perception of similar or different cosmologies influences their lives.

It's a simple thought experiment, imagine a world where you are the majority. In which your understanding of the universe is agreed to by the majority of persons. When a person who believes in a starkly different cosmology comes along do you simply say that's fine or do you wonder how that belief effects their actions.

Does an atheist trust an agnostic despite their clinging to an impossible dream of possible divine existence? Does an agnostic trust an atheist who insists on knowledge not knowable? Is it so different for those who believe a deity must be absolute, and those who believe such a being is transitory?

For me the universe is clockwork and precise, and those who embrace notions of chaos and randomness seem as much fools to me as saucarians no doubt seem to you.

All belief, whether it is in deities of body, spirit, imagination, or pasta, are all equally presumptuous with no evidence to support the conclusion. If the philosophy guides you through your day then you should let it do so. Likewise if someone else’s philosophy disturbs you, let your discomfort be known. But be humble as you do so, or you show yourself to be as big a fool as those you call a fool yourself.

It really makes me sad that the whole of science is boiled into one man's work, and then tossed out with the bath water by others.

Darwin was a pretty on the ball guy, and his theory of natural selection was an elegant beauty that has stood the test of time. But it took a more than a few decades to truly understand what it meant in terms of science.

People obsess on the macroscopic world, and think that their piddling understanding of what they can perceive with their limited senses equates to understanding of the world.

The fossil record isn't proof or disproof of Darwin's theories. The closest proof we've come to in understanding how life changes is antibiotic resistant bacterium.

In that is the answer. If you want to counter act blind faith against reason, your answer isn't Darwin, it's Watson and Crick, it's Newton, it’s Plank, Bohr and Einstein. Teach children the building blocks of the universe, the forces and interactions that make up the world and evolution explains itself.

Trying to teach evolution without first teaching chemistry is like teaching language without first teaching an alphabet.

Science is taught backwards in our country, starting with biology and approaching chemistry and physics only in high school. It's no wonder that people doubt the validity of evolution, most have only the word of an English teacher to go on. They never learn the interactions of atoms and the behavior of chemicals. By the time the smartest kids do get the education on the real mechanics of the world most children are lost.

Anyone familiar with the bible knows that creationist theories are no more based on biblical writing than Darwin's work. But because we've never bothered to explain the universe to people, one all encompassing theory accepted on faith can easily replace another.

We teach children to trust men in white coats without explaining to them what the men do. Is it any wonder that a number of charlatans have dawned butchers coats themselves and were granted the imprimatur that true scientists receive?

You say there are any number of other countries to go to when things in the US get to bad.

I am going to make a few assumptions here, 1) your white 2) your educated 3) you are relatively affluent.

If even one of these is not true you can expect to get the door slammed in your face you no good immigrant looking to steal jobs from hard working Swedes or what have you.

At the moment, where you are born in this world, is where you are likely to die. Open and fluid immigration is a gift America provides to the world, the world does not reciprocate.

The lurching towards fanaticism you fear is about as likely as a nuclear armed reconstructed Soviet Union plotting our downfall. Sure it's a possibility but it makes better fantasy than reality. In the end people tire of tyranny when there is no immediate benefit to themselves. Remember when Bush was popular and could do no wrong in his people's eyes? Well that didn't really last, and the vast majority of the country has tired of his Tyranny.

America, because of its open immigration, dynamic economy, and agnostic individualistic culture will rise and rise again despite its occasional follies.

Embracing of Creationism is not a rejection of science (you can't reject that which you do not know) it is a rejection of authority. Americans inherent distrust and disgust at authority is what will lead this country back from any precipice it wanders onto.

Be glad for it.