It does not suit the YEC narrative that scientists can be just fair minded folk who simply understand the evidence in favor of an ancient earth and mainstream knowledge of biology as a context for their research. In the lab, out in the field, it is their working reality. In conferences, when submitting papers, it is their job to defend the findings and their place in the body of scientific knowledge. Their PhD’s were obtained with the criteria of extending human knowledge.
YEC do not just misunderstand science, but also scientists. To correct this, one, no there is not some groundswell among scientists broadly questioning Darwin or the established scientific model of the universe or any such thing. This is settled science for the vast majority, including practicing Christians in research or resource geology. Further, the adoption of mainstream science is freely embraced, it is the weight of evidence, not coercion, which is at the base of consensus.
Two, while some scientists do seem to have an anti-christian axe to grind, the common motivator of almost all scientists is curiosity. Most have little interest in theology and are just trying to get an answer as to the why’s and how’s in the focus of their specialty. There is no big humanist agenda for most.
Lastly, scientists are not drooling village idiots in lab coats who are too thick to evaluate what they are told and are too smart for their own britches. When YEC adherents say, “Hey, I’ve never studied this but I know these guys are all wrong”, that is pretty much the implication. Not all YEC has this attitude but many do.