Religion, science denial, and our evolutionary roots!

Religion and science denial.

Science has been responsible for the gradual rolling back of religious myth and superstition since the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo. So it is hardly surprising that all religions have become so vehement in the practice of science denial - refined over many centuries.

In this exasperating era of post-truth and fake news it has become an obsession for conspiracy theorists, dishonest corporations, and the religiously unscrupulous to denigrate and repudiate any scientific evidence that challenge their collective and fictitious concepts of 'reality'.

The five facets of science denialism are well explained in this academic journal and they apply equally to all corporate and conspiracy propaganda, including supernatural beliefs. All religion is a man-made construct, based on the human fallibility to be irrational - due to the evolutionary development of our limbic brain.

Science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson scolds the "cherry picking" of science, and dishonest denial of evidence. He says that "settled" science is indeed settle; it's only the "bleeding edges" of new discovery that scientists argue over. Religion and the media focus only on this to conclude science knows nothing!

This is a phoney attempt to discredit science, and it underpins this current era of "fake news". We have played into the hands of those who feel threatened by scientific discovery - those conservatives who fear change, and that includes Islam, Christianity and particularly all evangelical religions.

It's time for scientists to fight back.

Tyson is correct to say that the science community is culpable for the gradual rise of pseudoscience. With a handful of exceptions (himself include) few scientists will speak out against the growing ranks of deniers. And this includes the pseudoscience of Genesis, promoted as "scientific truth" to schoolchildren through hundreds of private religious schools run by evangelical churches - and funded from the public purse!

Professor Emma Johnston, a marine ecologist, is one of the few Australian scientists to raise her concerns in a recent SMH article. She says the science community must actively seek to influence public debate by pushing it towards evidence-based arguments ... and by countering fake news and anti-intellectualism.

Mainstream media, too, has a responsibility to redress the misrepresentation of science. And it's time it lifted its taboo to discuss 'faith' openly. Why religion is a man-made construct, and how its flawed origins are rooted in the primitive recesses of our limbic brain - and distorted by our innate survival mechanisms.

A voice must be given to pro-science advocates who can explain exactly why society will benefit from a better understanding of knowledge through 'critical thinking'. How 'misguided opinions' become 'personal facts' - and why ordinary people defend irrational beliefs that have no basis in fact or evidence.

It is this evolutionary flaw - conflict between the rational frontal lobes and the emotionally defensive limbic system - that manifests as religion and pseudoscience: a denial of evidence and reason. And it's the 'false certainly' of a pious minority who denigrate science - and thwart the overwhelming majority who support laws for voluntary assisted dying, equal marriage, and a raft of socially progressive policy.