Which alternative science group is the most harmful?

[Associate Justice PiT]

Evolution is the alternative science not Creation science.

face meet palm. 

Creationists, of course.  It's the most pervasive.  Humanity will achieve so much more when we stop believing we are special. 

     I would agree with this. When 40% of people think that the Earth is 6,000 years old, you know that we're all in trouble.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Yeah, I think creationists are wrong, but what harm do they do?

Education?

Even in the worst case scenario, where evolution was not taught in public schools and only YEC was, what real impact would it have on anything?

Stupid children?

An entire generation of scientifically illiterate children?  The continued refusal to accept scientific consensus?

The idea that a "continued refusal to accept scientific consensus" is in itself a bad thing shows just how scientifically illiterate people can be. 

     There is a context in which that refusal is appropriate and a context in which it is not. When that refusal is rooted in a strong desire to believe that Genesis 1-6 is historically accurate rather than in any application of the scientific method, it approaches the scientific discourse in bad faith and ultimately undermines it.