In the past, this kind of ill-education has been hidden, no one cared about it, and no one actually KNEW that the bible was wrong so they thought it was good, wholesome teaching.
I am going to contain my displeasure and just ask. How far in the past are we talking about?
Up to early 1900s. After that, people steadily started knowing, caring, and having knowledge, and it spiked up with the advent of the internet.
And you lost it there. Fundamentalistic intrepretations of Christian teachings in the US date back to the 1900. Before that, this kind of stuff didn't exist. The literal intrepretation of the Bible (regarded by our dearest fundies as the only true one) was but one of many, and it was wildly accepted that it was inaccurate*. (Otherwise, everyone before the 1900 would need to believe that pi was exactly 3, and other strange things).
You made quite a generalization there. The entire Christian population, over the course of two thousand years. And since I'm not going to get away from this without a little argument to back this up (strange, considering you'd think it'd should be rather logical). We got the writing of several Christian writers on the matter (first one dating back 600 years ago). But more importantly, if truly devout would believe what creatonists believe, namely, that all creatures are immutable, how come it was a monk who laid the basic for genetics.
Link. For what reason then did
Link come up with the Big Bang. After all, you'd think priests and monks 'd be the people believing most in the Bible, yet it is them who prove it's literal intrepretation wrong.
*Not in those wordings of course. The point was that the literal intrepretation was considered equal, and often less worthwhile than all other possible intrepretations.
Note:
Have a related book
It is kind of especially a shame when you kind of understand that many of the same issues people blame on religion or the religious are being aped.
Humans are very good at imitating another. Better than apes really.
Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.
RENÉ GIRARD, VIOLENT ORIGINS