I think you'll find, pete, that Stu has given you some very detailed answers to your questions over the last couple of weeks. But, in a nutshell, you can do 'experiments' on the past by examining old material.

As for your question about rednecks etc. you know, as well as I do, that most of the claptrap about 'creationism' originates in N. America. Basically, certain N. American Christian fundamentalists, who would like to impose their religious fanaticism on their fellow Americans, and the rest of the world if possible, have decided that modern science represents a threat to their ambitions. Any sane person, exposed to the rigour and rationality of modern science, is going to soon realise that a literal interpretation of the Bible is complete balderdash. The fundamentalists know this and hence see science as a threat to their ambitions and even their local power bases. They have thus created the oxymoronic 'discipline' of "creationist science" in a farcical - and basically highly irrational - attempt to hold back the tide!