He believes that these people need a structured world, whether that is imposed by religion or aliens

I would love to attribute it to a weakness of character or a lack of intelligence, but I fear he may be right. This is how we’re wired.

It may actually be a matter of hardwiring. There is evidence now that seems to suggest a physiological basis for ideological orientation, and that conservatives (theological and political) have an affinity for hierarchy, authority and rigidly defined doctrinal structures. Here is an article that describes some of the research:

http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/neuroscience

I happen to know from personal experience that it is possible to be mostly rational, mostly intelligent, and still follow the Xian dogma. I did, for many years. I was a deacon in a very fundie church of a very fundie denomination.

What is not possible is to be rational, intelligent, and HONEST and continue to believe these things. Education is absolutely the key to getting people to let go of bronze age magic and accept the awe-inspiring reality around us. I am greatful every day that my mother encouraged omnivorious reading in her children. It gave me a broad base on which to lay out and examine my Xian beliefs. I fought it for a while, but I couldn’t be dishonest with myself and had to admit that I believed a fraud, and a silly one at that.

There is a reason that intelligence (or learning, perhaps) and faith are inversely related.

That’s also why education is so important, and we can’t let it be corrupted by IDers.

HERE HERE!

The fundies have relied on ignorance and fear for centuries to keep people in line. They want people to be dumb and scared otherwise people might start thinking for themselves.

The best example I can think of is the protestant reformation. It’s no coincidence that the reformation happened soon (in this case soon meaning a few decades) after the bible went into mass distribution due to Gutenberg’s press. The Roman Catholic Church didn’t want the bible translated into any other language. By keeping it in Latin they maintained a strangle hold on the text thus preventing anyone from forming their own opinions about religion. As soon as the bible went into wider distribution in many of the “vulgar” languages people started questioning the bullshit the Catholic church had been feeding them for centuries.

Pardon me but I’m going to wax Orwellian for a moment. Control of knowledge is control of thought. Control a person’s thoughts and you control the person.

All fundamentalist religions use fear to control their followers. Not just the fear of sin but the fear of knowledge. They brainwash people into believing that they might go to hell just because they know something that contradicts their holy dogma. So not only do they prevent their followers form learning about science that contradicts their belief they make them afraid of learning.

I’ll repeat that again for emphasis. Fundies are afraid of learning.

They fear knowledge. So they try their damnedest to suppress scientific knowledge. Their minds are closed. Our only hope is to get to them when they’re young and their minds haven’t been sealed off by anti-intellectual dogma.