More Americans are creationists than accept evolution

Is it any wonder that conservative Christianity has such a strong influence in the U.S.? It's hard for some of us to fathom, but most Americans identify themselves as creationists, and reject scientific evolutionary theory. This is from a report on a 2001 Gallup poll:

Americans More Likely to Identify Themselves as Creationists Than as Evolutionists

Gallup has asked Americans several times over the last 20 years to choose between three statements that describe the origin and development of the human race. Generally speaking, the plurality of Americans have come down on the side of a creationist approach to human origins, while slightly fewer have agreed with a statement that reflects an evolutionary process guided by God, and only a small number have agreed with an evolutionary process in which God had no part.

Most recently, in Gallup’s February 19-21 poll, 45% of respondents chose "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so," the statement that most closely describes biblical creationism. A slightly larger percentage, almost half, chose one of the two evolution-oriented statements: 37% selected "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process" and 12% chose "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process."
The public has not notably changed its opinion on this question since Gallup started asking it in 1982.

A full report on the poll can be found here.

I should know better but, even though I am interested in religion and spirituality, I continue to be shocked at the prevalence of literalistic and fundamentalistic beliefs in the U.S. The last election is certainly a wake-up call on this issue.

Is it a failure of the educational system that allows so many Americans to reject science in favor of literal biblicism? A federal trial began yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia over a school board's decision to place stickers in student's science texts, warning them that evolution is merely "a theory, not a fact" and should be "approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered." A NY Times report on the case can be found here.

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme held that requiring the teaching of creationism in public schools' science classes violates the separation of church and state. The Cobb County school board involved in the sticker case is apparently testing the limits of the earlier case, arguing that creationism isn't being taught--students are just being encouraged to be critical of the theory of evolution. But if even school board's foster doubt about evolution--the basics of which have been amply demonstrated scientifically--then is it any wonder that so many Americans reject science and hold onto outdatedly literal religio-mythical beliefs?