VA KP: of course we are “indoctrinated” in universities, but most people call it education. There are certainly blinders as well as cultural and philosophical viewpoints presented, but I think most folks would find that ignorance is a far greater handicap. Once skilled in discourse, reason, and scientific methodology, one can sometimes reconsider a mistaken idea. An ignorant illiterate hasn’t a chance. The trick is to learn a wide range of knowledge (as you suggest), and to try to understand different viewpoints, both of which require learning. There’s really no substitute for scientific methodology in figuring out how the world works.

If people respond rudely in newsgroups, forums, or blogs like this, sometimes it it because they are tired of hearing the same easily refuted claims yet one more time…

Stacey, the existence of a deity (or belief in such) is largely irrelevant to knowing how to fix an automobile. So is it with understanding the mechanics of the universe. If you think your holy scriptures say X, and the data show otherwise, you have several alternatives:
1. You are wrong in your interpretations.
2. Your holy scriptures are wrong.
3. The universe is an illusion, a contrivance, and nothing – including your holy books and your personal understanding of them – can be trusted.
Cautious readers will note that I did not list a fourth alternative:
4. The data is wrong.

That’s because there is *always the possibility that the data is wrong (either our observations are wrong, or the model we use to explain them). But science looks for continual verification of the data, and the models are tested. They may always be wrong in principle, but if the models (theories) fit the facts and continually make successful predictions, they are as right and true as anything we can know.

Some theories, like common descent thru modification, and the primary mechanism of natural selection, are supported by so much data from so many fields of scientific research that it would indeed be perverse to deny it. So fit a god or two in there if you like, but evolution is how they did it.