It's more that people don't like scientists than people don't like science, it's just that what we refer to as science comes as a result of the work of scientists. Scientists are people, and like all people, they can be manipulative and bias. They can call results ambiguous and simply discard them if it doesn't match their trend instead of thinking about how to improve and can skew results in order for their results to turn out true.
In turn, this can lead to serious problems if they get taken seriously. Take for example Andrew Wakefield
et al., a researcher who published a report saying that the MMR vaccine given to kids was shown to give off characteristics to Autism and bowel disease, saying that these characteristcs were caused by the vaccination. As it turned out, the paper was actually all wrong and as a result I have to have a several years late vaccination in a week.
Of course, this is only a small minority of scientists who do lie about research and using this to deny science as a whole is a hasty generalisation, but a small minority is enough to make people cynical about the whole thing (I try to be more of a skeptic myself).
We also have the factor of uncertainty. Physics -- and Quantum specifically -- is the most obvious example of this with all of its sometimes unprovable and sometimes redundant theories[footnote]To quote Niels Bohr: 'Those who think they understand Quantum mechanics haven't spent enough time studying it.'[/footnote], but in pretty much all forms of science there is some uncertainty involved. However, this argument becomes more invalid over time as technology evolves and results become more accurate and consistent.
Nunny said:
People dont like answers.
When people have believed in one thing all thier lives then someone comes along and proves that it is wrong, it can piss alot of people off. I for one think science is great and look forwards to the things that will be discovered (and hopefully dont kill us all).
Actually, people do like answers (that's why people believe in things, it allows them to gain answers), they just don't like something they believe to be true being proven wrong. Saying that people don't like answers and then going on to state that they have believed in one thing all their life is contradictory, as it is that belief that they get answers from.
JIst00 said:
Copernicus I think, but close, Galileo merely built upon and supported Copernicus's idea's.
Both ended up being hated by the church though for their research. Galileo also ended up being hated for disproving Aristotle's theory about the nature of objects contaning the elements Gravity and Levity.
EDIT: The sheer number of people blaming religion for people's skepticism of science is something I find unnecessarily insulting. Whilst a minority of religious extremists will use their religion as a means to deny science, scientific belief and religious belief aren't mutually exclusive, a lot of people in fact believe in both a god or higher being and the theories of science. If so many people believe in both then there must be more causes than simply religion to take into consideration as to why people deny science.
