Science Denialism – It’s Fascinating
Imagine being in a European forest in the middle of the winter, hunting, with night-vision googles, a modern hunting rifle, modern Goretex winter clothes, a GPS and an electric heater to warm some water for a cup of tea. Then, you decide to throw away all of these tools and run through the winter forest naked, hunting by throwing stones at deer. Because you don’t like the guy who sold you the winter gear. Or just because you don’t quite understand how it all works. Especially the damn GPS!
This is what science denial feels to me, throwing away the best intellectual tool humanity has ever come up with, for weak psychological reasons. There are of course many shades of science denial, from the presently prominent denial of anthropogenic global warming to the denial of the moon landing. The phenomenon has fascinated me for some time.
My mate Matt and I recently made a video, parodying science denial; Matt, who is a very talented actor, pretends to strongly believe that gobies, small fishes which interest me a lot, don’t even exist:
I wrote this essay about one of the more unusual deniers of science, a denier of ion channels in nerve cells! This is German neuroscience history. The guy was actually a really nice dude, I wonder what happened to him.
And this is my effort to bring a few thoughts on science denial together, I wouldn’t call it a grand theory of science denial, but I think I explain a few things about the odd phenomenon:
Best Fishes,
Klaus
