42 versus 13

I read yesterday that 42 percent of the US population believes in Biblical creation. 42 percent -- that's a pretty stunning number to me. And maybe it should be stunning that I'm the one who's stunned. I guess if I polled my immediate circle of acquaintances, it would be very small. Maybe 1 or 2 percent, if I really pushed. And I think I know a fair number of people. This points to the fact that there are vast swaths of this country that are mostly fundamentalist. It's hard to get my mind around it.
Growing up Catholic, in a Parochial education system, from the very start it was clear that even then, from the Catholic liturgical perspective, that Genesis was an allegory. I seem sto remember the nuns and priests responding to questions about the old testament with a kind of wink-and-nudge that God is the source of all this, but the discoveries that scientists have made more or less flesh out the specifics. It was a sensible response, and I don't think that even to a child, it undermines God's authority. And I suppose that if I was educated that way, I pretty much assumed everyone had comparable views.
I think I first encountered the notion of creationism in the 70s. Even then, it just seemed silly and easily written off. Again, I didn't know anybody who shared those beliefs. I didn't know any Biblical literalists. It took me until my 20s when I first encountered somebody who was a Born-again fundamentalist with those kinds of beliefs. On this encounter, I was struck in disbelief; how could an adult function in the modern world with such beliefs? I'll admit to being as ignorant and closed-minded as I might accuse someone of that stripe -- I just couldn't entertain the thought, it was that foreign.
Today, though, the implications of this 42 percent figure are more dire. I always assumed that there was about 13 percent of the population who held genuine fundamentalists beliefs. I probably read that somewhere, I can't point to a source at the moment. But it fit -- I could see a population that is less than 15 percent fundamentalists; modern society could support that. But this 42 percent number -- I'm viscerally shocked by this. I become frightened at the implications of this. Because this is a motivated 42 percent, if this number is correct. From my perspective, the future prospects for a county with a belief system such as this is doomed to a new kind of fascistic dark ages. And that seems to be exactly what those who lead these people are intending.