The reason academics care about it is because a tiny minority of right-wing extremists has made it their raison d'etre and actually made enough noise about it that journalists have given it far more ink than it is worth and some sizable chunk of people now actually believe there is something debatable there. The interesting question is why that lunatic fringe cares about it so much. If you want to get literal and selective with the bible there are any number of modern memes, theories, practices and policies to attack, most of which would have more practical value as a target than evolution.