Creationist bigotry in Russia...

[K. A. Pital]

For those who have a grasp of Russian, see here:
"Agony in Darwin's bunker" by A. Milukov, with comments

For those who don't, a summary. The author rants and raves about how a member of the Russian Scientific Atheism community (www.atheism.ru) smacked down creationist nonsense coming from a "new brand" of Russian "creationists" - ones parroting Ham, Hovind and their likes.

The interesting thing is that this bigot goes above usual - he makes a straightforward allusion from evolution researchers to Nazis. His article bears the inflammatory title "Agony in the bunker of Darwin", and it's finale says:

Evolutionary thought, like the archaeopteryx, dies out, not uniformly, but in a catastrophe! And, however you try to agitate for a new "Darwinjugend", all that is happening today is an agony in Darwin's bunker.

I hope that the future belongs to true science, which today has a working title of CREATIONISM.

(emphasis mine, his caps).

It's very upsetting to read stuff like that. As for the situation in Russia, I have been very concerned recently due to the fact that some of the Russian Othrodox Church outlets started publishing their own versions of YEC nonsence, because until late the movement was largely absent from mass publications countrywide! Lately there's been much enthusiasm between American-sponsored Russian creationists, especially given G.W. Bush's silly statements about ID.
De-facto creationism was not gaining much publicity in Russia, mostly because the older generation is very skeptical of religion, and there is no widely publicized discussion about education standards. Creationists can only make private lectures in rented classrooms, and by no means introduce their "theory" into educational standards which are dictated by the Federal Ministry of Education.
But then Russian creationists are same as their western "colleagues", even worse given the fact that they are directly accusing scientists and their works are not just religious propaganda, but full of open hatred.

[Guardsman Bass]

Maybe that will be the new head of the Creationist Hydra (spreading ID into other countries), if ID ends up on the losing end of the Dover Decision.

[PainRack]

Just a question. In the West, aren't most "evangelica creationism" protestant? That's one of the few sources of comfort I find in this poison, in that their own religious barriers might prevent the spread and aid of such nonsense.

[K. A. Pital]

Of course, the true allegiance of "othrodox" bigots is not known, but they claim to be Othrodox because this generates at least some public support, given that many people in Russia are Othrodox.
Othrodoxy is actually going along the line of a passive resistance to protestantism and denominations thereof... they can't actively force any of the denominations out of the country because of the laws...

In the 90th Creationism tried to force it's way into Russia with Televangelism, which got VERY popular due to the hardships faced by many former Soviet citizens... But somehow it didn't make it's way, maybe because Russian education system was a lot more strict on teaching evolution and never allowed any changes to the standard, neither did the Russian scientists have any will to debate some loonies... Now televangelism is also getting less popular - I hope this is a positive trend and Creationism will never thrive in Russia.

Oh, one more thing - in Russia we have a special commitee within the Russian Scientific Academy, that deals especially with pseudoscience like some late claims of successful anti-gravity research and creationism. I think this commitee has some authority to strip people of degrees and so on, at least that's what I heard.

[Darth Wong]

At its core, creationism appeals to stupid people. Every popular creationist argument is a gross oversimplification or distortion of the concept of evolution, and in the end, if you debate enough creationists it becomes painfully obvious that the average creationist is not intelligent enough to understand the concept of evolution. In most cases, they strawman it beyond all recognition not because they want to, but because they literally don't know any better.

And unfortunately, there are stupid people in every country, so there will always be people who are amenable to the creationist message. "God did it, and scientists are poopy-heads" is something that a person with a 70 IQ can understand, while a complex explanation of the correlation between species homology patterns and geo-location just flies over their heads, frustrates them, and makes them go back to option #1.