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Good post.
It always amazed me how otherwise seemingly intelligent people could succumb to extreme irrationality, such as young Earth creationists (YEC), who believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old despite overwhelming, conclusive evidence to the contrary. (For example, one of the YEC's prominent advocates is Dr. Duane Gish, who holds a PhD in chemistry from UC Berkley.)
I think the explanation lies in the psychology (partly) induced by physiological factors you mention in your post. This reminds me of a former YEC who calls this phenomenon "Morton's demon" after a well known physics thought experiment known as "Maxwell's demon." That ex-YEC details how this psychological mechanism clouded his judgement in the following illuminating post over on the talk.origins website:
Morton's Demon
[/ QUOTE ]I am glad I have yet to see anyone on this board preach that the universe is only 6,000 years old. It seems that the people that are attracted to this site, are more logical then society as a whole. But the fact that there are people that still believe such nonsense, while denying everything else that is percieved, is an interesting problem. One that, once someone understands the workings of the mind, one must look for similair demons within their own view. No one is immune to Mortons demon, and to creating rational but not true just-so stories. Mortons demon seems to control the evidence, so that an incorrect and irrational view is kept rational by controling the evidence.