Your stuff is always worth reading, Shannon. No exception here.

The important point here is the one that you start and end with, that stupidity invariably accompanies a lack of skill in critical thinking, and that fundamentalism (the ugly heart of the evangelical movement) cannot survive where critical thinking is practiced.

I've been writing recently about the biological substrate of our tendency toward self-deception and the role of anxiety in making us prefer our comfort zones. You show the more immediate roots, specifically familial indoctrination.

I'm pretty picky about following--there are so many fine writers here--but I guess I'd better put you on the list.