So how do you fix this? Can it be fixed?
Perhaps it can be fixed but it will not be either easy or fast. As long as the Televangelists and the Pastors and the folk at AIG and ICR and Discovery Institute have the bucks rolling in they won't change.
We as in this site or we as the education system of America?
Mostly the US education system.
How do you do this when their previous education has failed them and they have turned to something that is the anti-thesis of testing, discrimination, challenge and critical thinking?
Slowly and the same way you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
The thing to remember is that even though you fail almost every time every once in a while you do get through. And once someone learns how to learn, unless they are dishonest they will never go back to the Christian Cult of Ignorance.
What we can do is keep pointing to small basics. Try to stick to one point until it is clear, do not let them do a Gish Gallop or Palm the Pea, do not let them misdirect attention so they can move the dancin goalposts.
Aslan is not a
Tame Lion