Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?

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I get suspicious when anyone says the sky is falling.
 
Plus One on the cows. Sure, they're dumb as hell but they don't argue about who's right and who's wrong. And they're delicious when cooked properly!

Yep... If they "disagree" you can always cut 'em up and throw 'em on the grill...

Looks like I won the argument... LOL:)

Later! OL JR :)
 
Thanks for reading the article, and now I promise to go back and read yours! :wink:

You are right that the article mentions the fact that scientists don't have PR firms, publicists, etc. to promote their ideas. But it also makes the point that most scientist don't actually seek to take positions on policy or politics that relate to their research. As soon as they do, it feeds right into the perception that they are proceeding from some kind of agenda or pre-concieved bias.

A couple more points...I think most scientists are careful about advocacy, because it starts entangling various relationships, and most scientists try to avoid getting over-involved in things such as this. Look at it like this...if you spent your day studying something, do you want to take your job home with you, and work on advocating something in the evening?

The second thing, science develops a level of consensus...a lot of great discoveries were made by scientists bucking the consensus, and they started sometimes not with any hard data, but a belief...

Now, the difference between a scientific belief and another belief, is that a scientists will discard a belief when a certain amount of evidence accumulates.

As others have stated, there really isn't anything that is "proven"...it is all just held as consistent with what is currently known and understood, but subject to revision when new/more evidence comes in.
 
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