Published in The Socialist Party of Great Britain, Paddy Shannon points out that what motivates many on the side of religion to appose science is fear. Cliché but true: "People fear what they do not understand." In a recent survey (New Scientist, 27 Sept 2008, p.76) people were asked about a substance that can corrode iron and even kill humans if inhaled, known as Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO); 90% of respondents said the chemical should be banned. DHMO is more commonly identified as H2O; lack of knowledge and fear of death essentially led these people to supporting the banning of water.

Many religious people, mostly ignorant and uninformed, are "confronted with a world they don’t understand and in which they feel utterly helpless. Science to them is gas chambers, nuclear bombs, death rays, spy satellites and mind control. Wild stories about Earth-eating black holes and ‘strangelets’ guaranteed front-page coverage worldwide for the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider, an event only normally of interest to particle physicists." Superstition is being pushed out by logic, and the fear is that there will be no place left for god. "What we need to do … is recognize the emotional vacuum this is creating, and strive to fill it, before something infinitely worse does."

Found via RichardDawkins.net.