It's the law
It’s disheartening to see science so overlooked in the politico-economic agenda and in the attention of people. Maybe this is a reason why:
- 80% of brits believe in ghosts,
- 75% of US citizens believe in angels,
- Only 24% of US citizens take as fact the anthropomorphic climate change—compared with 98% of scientists,
- 40% of US citizens acknowledge evolution—82% in Iceland.
“Balanced-side views”, “making-up your own opinions” are just subterfuges for stupid ignorance. All masked in the seemingly innocent “just theories”. Actually we are talking about scientific theories which Wikipedia defines as:
A scientific theory comprises a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties, together with rules (called scientific laws) that express relationships between observations of such concepts. A scientific theory is constructed to conform to available empirical data about such observations, and is put forth as a principle or body of principles for explaining a class of phenomena.
But I think some of the blame is on the scientists themselves: they suck at marketing. If your scientific theory is constantly replaced by simpletons with just a theory then, change the name!
The Law of Evolution. I am sure this is not correct following the scientific dogma, but since it started as a bunch of laws when Darwin discovered them, we can go with it. Simple laws like:
- Heritable variation exists within populations of organisms.
- Organisms produce more offspring than can survive.
- These offspring vary in their ability to survive and reproduce.
All gathered under an umbrella type brand.
Scientists should present these as laws—unquestionable, indifferent, above suspicion. Never mention the word believe either. Nobody asks you if you believe in gravity or the theory of relativity or in the, by now, bland aspirin.
Some holy figures even rose to the sky but nobody denies gravity. It just happens that gravity is described by Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation. Convenient huh?