The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science

[Pamela]

I recently did some work on the introduction of smallpox vaccines to Europe in the early 18th century and was fascinated by resistance to the procedure among doctors--even after it had been proven to work. This article is a fascinating discussion of why research doesn't convince people to change their minds: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/...

What do you think?

[Holly]

What a great topic! Would love to see if we could come up with a list of scientific naysaying. Of course, blood transfusion was the one that comes immediately to my mind...

[Bunnie]

Pamela wrote: "I recently did some work on the introduction of smallpox vaccines to Europe in the early 18th century and was fascinated by resistance to the procedure among doctors--even after it had been proven ..."

[Bunnie]

pamela,

there has always been resistance to new ideas--i suppose it is healthy to doubt. i am reading beak of the finch for the third time trying to get a handle on evolution--then in the April edition of Discover Mag.an article about Lynn Margulis who has an extreme idea about the subject changes what i think -at least for now--wish someone with more education on the subject would put in a word or two.

[Pamela]

Bunnie wrote: "pamela,

there has always been resistance to new ideas--i suppose it is healthy to doubt. i am reading beak of the finch for the third time trying to get a handle on evolution--then in the April ..."

Not only has there always been resistance to new ideas, this article suggests that we are hard-wired to doubt new ideas. The really amazing thing seems to be any new ideas are accepted.

[Bunnie]

pamela--this morning in the paper an article gave all the credit for a man surviving a terrible illness ,respiratory and septic in nature to prayer. nothing was said about the doctors who treated him, the researchers who developed the medicine used, the inventors who made the use of ventilators possible --the many years of just plain work to find the cause and treatment of so many conditions that cause death.