Here is an interesting article, on a site called Edge that I got to from the excellent Arts & Letters Daily, that explores why some people find scientific ideas so difficult to accept. It is worth reading the entire article, but one conclusion is that on the whole scientists do not enjoy much of a position of authority in modern America. Consequently, when scientists pronouncements go counter to generally held, intuitive, but completely wrong ideas about the role of design in the origins of life, people tend not to give science much credence. The authors demonstrate that this extends to simple misperceptions about how objects move, a field that is subject to a level of objective proof.
An unwillingness to accept blatant appeals to authority sounds somewhat healthy, but this is a selective unwillingness. What puzzles me is that the authority of preachers and politicians seems able to trump that of scientists. This seems to be peculiar to this country and according to the authors, accounts for why the theory of evolution is accepted by only 40% of the adult population in the United States. Of 34 countries sampled only Turkey has a lower percentage.
I wonder has this always been the case. If this is a recent phenomenon, what caused it?
