I would imagine that as long as humans have been able to converse they have wondered about the events they could not explain or understand. As their mental capacity expanded, they became more curious and more intrigued with these unexplainable occurrences. At some point in time they began assigning names and personalities to these events. They named the god that caused thunder to rumble above them during electrical storms. They had no scientific knowledge of what was happening to cause the frightening sounds, so they attributed it to something they could grasp, someone like themselves that they could not see.
Now these many years later, educated people know the reasons for the lightening and the thunder. We are no longer ignorant of it’s origin. We know there is no god driving his chariot through the sky.
Science has explained so much to us that the people of history did not have the luxury to understand. Science has removed the need to attribute to gods what is a naturally occurring event.
Today with all the scientific knowledge we have and our ability with due diligence to have more, the need for gods is increasingly growing unnecessary.
We are discovering that knowledge of earthly events is the result of natural occurrences and not the result of the will of some supernatural being.
This, I believe, is what is making the religious Right so angry. They feel their god’s reputation as the all mighty one is being eroded. Rather than acknowledge that we can discover and understand the causes for events, they would rather deny that knowledge exists. They seem to refer to knowledge as something that is “elite” and those who rely on that knowledge as “elitist”. With these labels, they have tried to destroy the bountiful treasures that stem form education and knowledge. Why would they do that? Why fly straight into the face of reason?
The Right, rather than take responsibility for their actions and deeds, find it easier to attribute everything they do to their “God’s will”. As long as their actions and beliefs are “God’s will”, they never have to explain themselves. They shun anyone who can present them with facts, as facts are often the enemy of their beliefs.
As the scientific world moves forward to explain more and more events, the religious Right sees that much of the world requires less and less need to assign that which they do not yet understand to a whimsical, supernatural god. They fear a world that is evolving into a world that is not fearful of the wrath of their god. Without the need to attribute to a god what is not understood by man, they fear they will be held responsible for their deeds, not in heaven, but right here on earth. They fear the evolution of science and the revelation of the reality it brings.