Re: The Mistrust of Science and Scholarship
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Something that has been bothering me lately is the general mistrust of scientific and academic research in American society...when there is a consensus among the experts in a given field, it seems like we should defer to their judgment. So why doesn't this happen?
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Can you give an example of an established scientific claim that the general public rejects?
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The 3 examples have been given, Human caused Global Warming, Evolution, and the Big Bang.
That's not a long list.
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The list is really long.
Atrazine
DDT
Alar (actress meryl streep single handedly destroyed the scientific community)
tobacco for 20 years despite the obvious connection
CFC/Ozone - for a long time at least
Dangers of certain "natural" organic foods
According to Rduke, the dangers of MDMA
Species extinction
There are quite a few people that think the Grand Canyon is less than 6K years old.
The transitional fossil record.
Ethanol fuel from corn
Peak oil (consensus is constantly twisted beyond recognition)
The utility of Jack-12 and the lower tertiary gulf oil wells
A lot of gun control laws are passed despite claims from the CDC and the FBI that certain laws don't do a damn thing. I'm pretty sure the waiting period law is one of those.
Hydrogen fuel cells
Electric cars
That's just a few off of the top of my head.
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