“Ignorant masses” is only degrading if you look down on them, which I don’t believe you do. It is , however, not only accurate but exactly as those in power regard people. Mass psychology has been understood and used for a long time by powerful people to stay in power. It is made much easier though if the powerful can keep the masses they wish to control from being exposed to education. How do you think Democrats get so many young people to vote for them? By having control over the public school system for decades. This also explains why they keep wanting to get their claws on our kids at a younger and younger age. The younger they are when their little brains and ability to reason are destroyed, the easier it is for them to be manipulated and remain as ignorant.
For many centuries, at least in western history, the peasants were illiterate. By design or circumstance doesn’t much matter because the result was the same. Powerful people maintained power because the masses had no access to any point of view other than what was forced upon them. I can’t think of a more accurate way to describe the situation.
So, a young earth goes against Science but the Eucharist doesn’t? 
