Before we try to give our view on what makes science so unpopular in the US these days, we would like to explain why we believe that this is the case in the first place. Well, for one, it is enough to check out the news and to see that they are trying to take out everything resembling scientific thought out of the schoolbooks and the curriculum. Also, try and name more than a few scientists living today. It isn’t going that well, right? Now try and name a few Kardashians. Much more names come to mind, don’t they? Well, it is all because science has become an unwelcome guest in this country, which is a shame, really.
And to be quite honest, it is not that easy to understand what makes science that unpopular in the USA. In fact, it puzzles pretty much everyone who is not bent on believing various conspiracy theories. For instance, most of the people who have something against science and who believe it to be a thorn in their paw are also people who would like to see the USA stay on top forever. It makes it difficult to understand this because without science, you are nothing. A country without science is nothing. You can produce and consume as much as you want, but without science, you will be left behind.
Now, we do not wish in any way to attack religion as it is a basically noble idea (in its very core), but it seems that organized religion is once again to blame for holding science back. In fact, it almost feels wrong to call these people religious, these people for whom dogma is everything and who have somewhere in the mix forgotten about religion being all about tolerance. For some reason, one of the things that they find very difficult to tolerate is science and its tendency to question everything.
And this is perhaps where the real reason of science’s unpopularity lies. It is uncertain. The scientists are the first who will tell you that they do not know something. And not knowing something is a scary proposition. It is much easier to say that you understand everything and that you know everything because someone somewhere has said that things are like this and no other way. The problem is that without uncertainty there is no science and that without science there is no real progress.
Of course, there are myriad other reasons why science is being held back so to say in this country. Some will say that it is important to keep people out of the loop when science and questioning is in question because such a population is more likely to swallow everything, but this does sound like getting too close to some conspiracy theory, and we don’t like those. Whatever the reason might be, we need to change and we need to ask for more science. Science is what makes humans and we need it, both in this country and elsewhere in the world.