Why Americans Reject Science

Those wishing to know why present-day Americans are so vehement in their rejection of science, consider this piece from Bertrand Russell:

“It is science that has destroyed the belief in witchcraft, magic and sorcery. It is science that has made the old creeds and the old superstitions impossible for intelligent men to accept. It is science that has made it laughable to suppose the earth the center of the universe and man the supreme purpose of the creation. It is science that is showing the falsehood of the old dualisms of soul and body, mind and matter, which have their origin in religion. It is science that is beginning to make us understand ourselves, and to enable us, up to a point, to see ourselves from without as curious mechanisms. It is science that has taught us the way to substitute tentative truth for cocksure error.”

The answer to the question lies in the last sentence. Our educational system is failing, and uneducated people love to be “cocksure.”

Cults, perhaps the most notorious for their rejection of science, don’t want doubters; they demand that their followers be certain.  In fact, some of them sell certainty as one of the benefits of membership.