It's not hard to find where people make mistakes of either logic or of ignoring solid evidence. What's hard is trying to understand why.
Our brains are hardwired to filter our realities. I suspect it's a necessary mechanism of self preservation.
I think teaching critical thinking skills to kids is as important, (if not more important), than teaching them all the facts they're taught now.
I don't know how successful we can be in teaching critical thinking skills to adults. I try to address it in all my classes. Sometimes, I'll go through the whole concept of scientific evaluation of evidence vs common errors people make misinterpreting evidence. Sometimes I get responses that indicate the whole concept was discarded by a student who preferred to hold on to an existing belief despite the fact it was based on merely coincidental evidence, even in the face of research that supports the opposite conclusion.
As far as the 'Creationist' believers, they seem to be giving way to the 'intelligent design' believers. I suspect that's how people changed from the 'flat Earth' believers to the 'round Earth' believers, through a gradual process of redefining their realities.
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