The Iraq war: a lesson for scientists and smart people

Evnen with far superior man/fire power and the intention to overthrow a brutal dictator the US lost the war, but won the battle. Most agree this is because they did not win the "hearts and minds" of th population. This is a good analogy for the evolution propaganda (it's not a debate, if you believe it is go directly to school, do not pass go) since although we have the very best army of facts and evidence it doesn't guarantee victory. Unfortunately we are pitted against a clever amorphous insurgency of irrational dogma that is appealing to some who lack proper education or simply desire power for themselves over others. Because these ideas and perpetrators can hide in the amongst the population we must battle them tactfully to win them over for all our sakes. In my opinion this requires outreach. We must go into the trenches and weed out these ideas and expose "righteous" claims as false, harmful and simply a power play. Many people's view changes when they realize their child's life could be endangered by such ideas.

As an example for the science (not Iraq part), the belief in creationism implies that vaccines are useless since it is god's will to give the virus and that no virus can evolve to jump the species barrier. Also many drugs are made by evolving bacteria to manufacture the drug. Most people are not religious enough to stake their child's life on their superstitions and so see a doctor not priest or imam when they get sick. Not teaching evolution needlessly delays progress on cures due to the social and economic problems that our society incurs, but to win the hearts and minds we must build and understanding and relationship with them to win them over.