"For us 'coastal elites' who understand evolution, genetics, science…nothing we say to those in fly-over country is going to be listened to because not only are we fighting against an anti-education belief system, we are arguing against God. You aren’t winning a battle of beliefs with these people if you are on one side of the argument and God is on the other."

This. This is the reason I don't even bother trying to engage seriously with most people I encounter who self-identify as conservative Christians. You can't have an honest discussion of facts with them, because their ultimate argument is an appeal to $DEITY. I have a high school friend who is a conservative Christian, and she does seem to at least try to consider arguments from outside her belief system, but most of her friends seem utterly incapable of doing so, and always, vocally, because $DEITY.