and Mike replied:
> I'm not sure how many but it may be more than we usually imagine.
You might also add the large number of people that may have an open mind on
the matter. I think that many people's belief in YEC is rather soft -- they
believe it because they don't know of an alternative that also takes a high
view of Scripture (I have personal experience on this matter). They are
also very ignorant of the weakness of the YEC's attacks on evolutionary
science. For instance, people all the time tell me, "there aren't any
transitional fossils" or they have believed unjustified (and often
dishonest) attacks on radiometric dating.
Far too many people seem to believe that there *must*, at the end of the
game, remain *some* part of the Creation process that we will *never* be
able to explain. At its basis, this is "God of the gaps" thinking.