&gt;<i>What conflict of interest does a Young Earth Creationist have? Not money.</i><p>Why not money? Most of them built a career that is celebrated, while being lousy scientists, by playing the Creationist card and appealing to particular political&#x2F;religious publics. And working for similarly minded organizations and &quot;research&quot; institutes.<p>&gt;<i>If you say religious belief, you&#x27;d be right, but it&#x27;s not a terribly effective criticism because the majority of U.S. scientists are religious, too.</i><p>That would be relevant only if they let their religion influence their science. Which a computer scientist or a chemist doesn&#x27;t have to, or at least as much as a evolutionary biologist.