In our culture right now we have several ‘denier’ movements actively engaged in trying to impede the free development of science: the creationists, the climate change deniers, and the consciousness deniers-those who cannot, or will not, consider consciousness as anything other than materialist processes. For all their lack of substance, these movements are powerful forces in the culture, with substantial detrimental effects.

Creationism, on its face, seems medieval and absurd, but The Pew Research organization, which has tracked the creationist question for many years, reports that 55% of Americans believe the world was created within the last 10,000 years, with all the species pretty much as they are today.1 As appalling as that is, I want to point out, in the context of this essay, that it is getting worse. Creationists are winning the hearts and minds of the American public. Consider the 2005 poll by the Harris organization, shown in Table 1.2
Table 1.

Do You Believe Apes and Man Have a Common Ancestry or Not?

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