No, there is a ton of factual evidence for evolution out there, and more being accumulated daily as viruses mutate and livestock / grains get bred for one attribute or another. That's evolution in action.

Dig around at fossils and one can piece together evidence of past evolution, and so on.

There is absolutely zero evidence out there of any truth whatsoever in "creationism". That makes it a "belief system", not a science.

Totally different things.

Back to the question of who and why.. Religion is Big Business in the US of A, with numerous multi-millionare (billionare?) TV "preachers" and the like, and huge big-budget bricks and mortar style churches.

All of this depends upon people continuing to wear the blinders and "believe" in something for which there is zero scientific proof.

So I suppose perhaps this "force kids to believe (religion) rather than question (science)" thing is a way to try and keep the money flowing in the longer term.

Shame really, cuz crap like that probably turns way more people off religion than being more open and honest would. Not a lot of people like being labelled nutcases by association, so .. Just Stay Away from it all.

-ml