Heated debate on evolution with brother

[RoadRunner79]

It would seem that a number of people have noticed this.  I would also add the it appears that quite a few who practice medicine also fall into the same category.  Which has lead me to ask before, if those in applied sciences are more likely to deny evolution?

Yes you're right, as we've seen in the US presidential race, one can be a great surgeon and still be an evolution denying creationist. Maybe it's that these groups are very highly educated in a science related field (but often don't actually do science in the strictest sense). The engineer is entirely focused on analyzing design and will interpret things she sees in this frame of reference. A surgeon is confronted with the great complexity of life and has to work and struggle with it, and sees herself as an expert on how life works - not having gotten any in depth training on how such complexity can arise naturally, she might feel compelled to jump to creationist conclusions.

I would agree, that these groups are not doing scientific research in the same since as in other fields (and I would guess, that this is true for a great many, with a science education).  Although I would say that at least in my field of automation, that troubleshooting is going to follow a similar process.   But I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss motives or biases of an entire group.   That argument could easily be turned around to go the other way.

For me personally, in my work, I often have to distinguish between causes of design or random forces acting on the system.   And in reality, we all do this all the time instinctively.