scoring high enough flies =?

The operative phrase, Ori, is,

flies in the face of [something]

Remember that discussion we had about 'data' being a singular or plural form?

I, in effect said that the rule that describes that situation flies in the face of logic and reality. That rule is an affront to reality and logic.

In this particular case the author is saying that abandoning a scale is an affront to the most basic principles of scientific measurement.

Thanks.

New questions remain:
1)scoring high = ?
2) a scale =?

“The idea that a scale should be aban-doned because Americans are not scoring high enough flies in the face of the most basic principles of scientific measure-ment,” he says.

New questions remain:

I can't be completely sure, Ori because of the shortage of overall context, but it seems to be saying that there shouldn't be a dumbing down of the scale/metric used to describe evolution just to appease/make Americans look less ignorant on the subject of evolution.

http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2011/07/evolution_literacy_still_on_th.php

So was Ayatollah Bush responsible for this?