Very interesting post re the similarities of YEC and Petersonmania.
One term that may serve well as the category of these phenomena is 'folk
science' as defined some time ago by Jerome Ravetz. We discussed this in
both _Science Held Hostage_ (IVP, 1988) and _Portraits of Creation_
(Eerdmans, 1990).
In a nutshell, 'folk science' is a set of beliefs about the natural world
(whatever the source of those beliefs--whether some canonical text,
professional science, amateur observation, or self-published books best
suited for the psychoceramic file, etc) whose primary function is to
provide their holder with *reassurance* that another set of beliefs about
reality (basic beliefs already in place) can be retained at the desired
level of certainty.
Howard Van Till