The Recklessness of Science Denial

As Neil Degrass Tyson once said, “The good thing about science, is that it’s true wether or not you beleive in it”. Science is actually a cool name that we give to a process followed by humans to understand the universe they inhabits.

The seed is curiosity, and from that curiosity, questions arise. The method we take to answer these questions is what we called science. Fortunately, as a mildly intelligent species, we refined this process over centuries to make sure that whatever answer we arrive to for any given question is the most exact and universally accepted one, which gives us full confidence that it is our “best” explanation given whatever inputs we had.

This method has been used to explain everything from proving that the earth is not flat, to explaining the force of gravity on the scale of the Universe, with many more instantly beneficial results in between. Medicine, Biology, Chemistry, Physics all use the scientific method and peer review to explain the world around us, and to better our lives with technological and medical advancements.

This is why I am always taken a back, to put it mildly, when I see large samples of the human race question the work done and knowledge gained with science, and thus deny what scientists are telling them. Climate change is one prime example. How can anybody question it, even now that effects are being felt and observed everywhere? Vaccines are being questioned too now? It does not matter that life expectancy has almost quadrupled during the last few centuries in most part due to advances in medicine. Darwin’s theory for the evolution of species is now fighting to stay on the curriculum of some schools and it’s adversary is creationism?

This is all very scary because it tells us that if a majority starts denying what has actually advanced our civilization through the last few centuries, then we will most certainly regress. On the other hand, one could argue that this is just an ironic example of natural selection….