I talk to YECs all the time. It sounds to me like you are not talking to YECs, though. Sounds like you are actually referring to plain old "stupid" people. There are lots of them, so it's not hard to run into them. People come out with those types of statements regarding your chances of salvation don't even understand their own scriptures. Part of that is because 99.999% of them haven't actually read them. They have absorbed snippets of them over the years, but lack understanding of what information they actually convey. If they did, they would be a lot more scared of making blanket statements like that.
I always find it shocking that people get into such arguments regarding the age of the earth. For the YECs, I don't see how God could care about how old they think the earth is. It's inconsequential. For those who believe that the earth is billions of years old, I don't see how they can take themselves seriously, or care about the result. After all, the number has changed too many times to be of actual interest to anyone (exception below), and it has less than zero bearing on anyone's life. Those who spend untold amounts of time speculating on its age have another agenda. There's where the conflict with YECs comes in.
Since there is nothing to gain from the knowledge itself, the attempt has other motives behind it. First, those who want to "prove" that there is no God, or that if there was one, it certainly isn't the one depicted in the Christian faith. Lots of these people were raised as Catholics or members of other very well organized churches. They were taught from dogma, rather than the Bible. When the dogma failed, their faith was lost (often early) and they feel the need to "liberate" everyone else from the "shackles" of faith. Two, the opportunist looking to get paid for useless research. Some are self-delusional regarding the usefulness of their activity, and come up with all sorts of justifications for being a non-productive member of society. Some are just obsessed hobbyists who have found a way to fund their hobby. Three, the political operative who seeks something to use as leverage against an interest opposed to his or her own. Their lack of faith is not militant, but some other issue puts them at odds with Judeo-Christian groups, such as abortion.
The reaction of some YECs and other religious groups to "unbiased" science is a direct result of some very biased people who try to use very questionable science to undermine the foundations of their faith.
I speak with stupid people of every persuasion all of the time. We all hear them on radio and TV frequently. The trick is to associate with smart people, no matter their opinions. If you try, you will find them. I have talked with very intelligent Jehovah's Witnesses (also dumb ones). I have talked with very intelligent Atheists (also extremely stupid ones). Add Jews, Catholics, Protestants of various denominations, Buddhists, and Muslims, in about the same proportions. The smartest ones have read more of their source materials, and not relied on regurgitation of something someone told them in conversation. This includes the smart Atheists, whose source material can actually be rife with bias. It, like the faith-based material, must be read carefully to see what it says, and what it doesn't, or can't or refuses to say.
As a side note, it is interesting to learn of the many things that are misunderstood by people reading the Bible, due to a lack of cultural context. People aren't aware of underlying issues that existed thousands of years ago in foreign lands. Paul's letters are spectacular for seeing these, as he was dealing with completely different groups of people, and many had very different "problems" in the early Christian Churches.
