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yes, a free market does help the funding of developments in science and research. ethnicity has little to do with is. if a society places emphasis on science and mathematics and is backed up by state/private funding it can come up with path breaking research.

the old soviet union was an example of state funding. in our country it was a healthy mix of state/private funding that contributed to research. increasingly china and india will give us a run for our money.

(PS: about creationism versus evolution - the debate is importatnt. read James Michener's Space to understand more. )

The evolution debate is important but not for the reasons I usually see discussed on FR. People should respect others' views and isolate that issue from others. Again, how we were created has nothing to do with the existence of God, except in the method he may have chosen to do it. People who lost their faith because they began to consider evolution as a viable theory were mistaken, in my opinion.

Those who insist on a young earth are attempting to conform science to their faith, but I can accept that as long as their methods do not cloud their application of the scientific method in other areas but I would be willing to hear evidence of a young earth at any time.

Those who say that young earth creationists cannot practice science because they refuse to conform to the beliefs of others are in danger of holding their own views as dogma on pure faith! There are many insightful, intelligent people who believe in a young earth. Their abilities in engineering and science are not necessarily compromised by their faith. It's a gross generalization to say so.

If evolutionists come to "believe" in their ideas instead of holding them as theories, they've lost the battle for applying the scientific method, and they've crossed over the line of dogma and become like those who believed the sun rotated around the earth because of a bible passage. If they mistreat young earth believers in their classrooms, for example, where is their duty to tolerance and respect for faith?

This question obligates the faithful to respect the views of others, but in today's secular world, it obligates those who understand biological history through the filter of evolutionary theory to respect the views of the faithful more than ever before.