Survival of the ignorant?

I'm worried and aggravated. I'm afraid for my planet and my species. I'm afraid it's squandering its enormous potential.

Somehow, recently, I got into a conversation about evolution. You know: Darwin, natural selection, Origin of Species; all that stuff. Living only 12 miles away from where Darwin was born, I guess it's inevitable he comes up in conversation occasionally. The two people I'm talking to are not religious - not Creationinsts, catholics or any other faith, and yet it turns out that they don't 'believe' in the theory of evolution (the inverted commas are because it's not a matter of belief - you don't 'believe' in gravity or DNA, you accept the obviousness of the truth, and evolution is the same). They don't buy creation either, and claim they are waiting to discover 'The Third Way'.

Some of what they say is tongue in cheek, but the underlying unwillingness to accept the theory is serious. As I begin to question the reasons for this, I soon find that it's because they don't actually know what evolution is - all they have is a vague misconception about what it might be, clearly illustrated by the fact that one of them doesn't understand why apes are still around if humans evolved from them (we didn't is the short answer, and the long answer is far too long to go into here), and the other doesn't know how a fish can give birth to an air-breathing lizard (again, it's doesn't is the short answer). I mention that what they think evolution is actually isn't, and offer to lay out the theory and the proof in a simple written form to help them increase their understanding. Once they have that knowledge, they can then debate it properly and decide for themselves whether or not to accept the theory. At least they'll no longer have the misconceptions. They both promptly decline this offer saying they don't care as it won't change their lives in any way.

Now, this is the heart of the matter - this is why I'm afraid. They would rather go on believing their misconception regarding what evolution actually is than attempt to learn or understand. These people are not morons - they posses both intelligence and common sense. They simply aren't interested in knowledge they can't see a material use for. To me, this is unfathomable. I am amazed every day by the natural world, at the way everything fits together so perfectly. That amazement is possible because of my understanding of how it all came to be - because of my understanding of evolution. That a person of reasonably high intelligence would rather watch Eastenders, X-Factor, Masterchef and any number of mind-numbing TV shows than actually increase their understanding of, well, anything at all is frightening.

Is this the norm or the exception? Is no-one curious anymore? Are we collectively so entangled by the mundanity of everyday celebrity culture, soaps and TV talent shows? If so, then we are lost, doomed to fade away into lethargy and entropy.