Something I haven't figured out, is why this obviously brain-dead idea of "creationism" even exists.

I mean, the religious and Christian people I know see it as total rubbish, and not founded on any reasonable basis in their religions. These are very bright people, not given over to putting on blinders when something appears at first to contradict their knowledge and/or religion. They see (real) science as 100% compatible with God -- no conflict there.

So.. this creationism crap. It's not the sort of design that any intelligent and educated person would genuinely come up with on their own. So, like most things, somebody is pushing it out there, for some reason.

I wonder what that reason is?

Control and power are the two normal motivations for propaganda crap like this. But I'm having difficultly seeing the exact links here.

Is it being used simply as a way to "unite" a vocal population subset against a "common enemy", for political gain? And perhaps to distract those voters from far more disdainful (or "evil") activities hiding underneath?

It does seem born from the idea that one might impeach a party/president for fibbing about sex, but retain one who takes much of the planet to the brink of war. Given something like that was possible, why not invent a similar "moral" way to distract voters again.

Or something like that. As I said, I'm having trouble figuring this out.

Cheers