"If you had to undergo a fearsome initiation ritual to be told the truth about evolution, maybe people would be more satisfied with the answer." Sounds cool, im thinking of some sort of camp maybe ;)

Seriously, looking at the many cases of bitter competition in the history of science makes me think that status at least has been an important motivator of discovery. E.g Newton vs. Leibniz & also cases where there actually was a disagreement about the correct theory..