Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon

In this NY Times article (free registration required) a couple of stats were mentioned showing the gap between the American public and scientists:

Though it did not ask specifically about the global flood or six-day creation, a November 2004 Gallup survey found that a third of the public believes the Bible is the actual word of God that should be taken literally and that 45 percent think God created human beings "pretty much in their present form" within the last 10,000 years.

Gallup found in another poll that 5 percent of scientists, and fewer than 1 percent of earth and life scientists, adopted the "Young Earth" view.

Forty-five percent?! I can at least understand a belief in God, but denying how old the Earth is?

The article is interesting in that is shows two groups visiting the Grand Canyon, one with the belief in the unscientific Young Earth theory looking for evidence of a world-wide flood, the other a group of scientist both amateur and professional studying the rock formations and discussing how to defend science in an age of growing mysticism. Creations sometimes argue that evolution is as much a faith as is religion but,

Dr. Scott and others cringe at creationists' charge that Darwin's theories have become dogmatic faith, that creationism and evolution are just two parallel belief systems, equally plausible and unprovable. "We have faith in science, but it's not a religion," said Herb Masters, a retired firefighter. "It's a faith in a body of knowledge."