Now that's a different issue entirely.
I would prefer to live in a world where cutting edge scientific research didn't have to be funded by the public trust. In the cases where research has a direct application, companies can and do fund research. I also believe it's important to conduct research that may have applications that cannot yet be foreseen. In an ideal world I'd like to see American citizens and corporations with a lower tax burden, and perhaps then there would be more inclination from people and corporations to voluntarily fund the acquistion of knowledge.
Right now, though, that's just not happening; and as long as the government is funding science research, they should do it on the basis of scientific merit, not on the basis of what people want to believe is true. The question of where funding should come from is a tricky one; I agree that I would like to see the transition of funding transfer to the private sector. I think this, more than anything, would get rid of the claim to leverage that sectarian factions have; as good scientists are never going to want to work for anyone who demands faulty logic and science from them.
Until that day and age comes, we're stuck with the question of "Who gets the government dime?". I don't like it either, but that's the way things work now.
"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*." -- Ghostbusters