It might be vaccines, man-made climate change, evolution... whatever; I was at a lose as to how people could not believe. But a book I have been reading has helped.
I am reading the Thomas Friedman (I know, a bit of a blowhard) book "Thank You For Being Late". In it, he explains that the world is changing on 3 axis faster than we humans can keep up. (Technology, Globalization, Social Change)
When you think of huge innovations before - the printing press, the steam engine - they spread slowly across time and geography. Maybe a bit around Western Europe, and then North America or just China - and tens or hundreds of years later they moved on. For example, most of Africa didn't have printing presses before 1900 - 400 + years after they were invented. Indigenous Americans didn't have gunpowder 600 years after it was invented or 150 years after it was used extensively in Europe.
Now, change is occurring very fast. Too fast, in fact, for people to keep up. The relentless march of technology, global markets and social change has people freaked out.
Sure, I don't have a problem with social change (I'm gay and married now, so I like it) - but to understand think back to 2006.
In 2006 there was no: Facebook, iPhone, Smart Phone Aps, Android phones, tablets, Cloud Computing, Streaming Services, Mobile Phones world wide. Back in 2006 mapping 1 (ONE) persons' DNA cost $10Million dollars (now you can do your own for less than $100). Hell we are now gene-splicing fixes into people.
It is impossible to fully understand the sum of information we have now. Maybe in 1900 a single person could be smart enough to understand how "everything" worked. But find me a person today that can: create a mobile phone from scratch, splice a DNA sequencer and set up a multi-national funds transfer system and explain why some people are born gender fluid. No ONE person can understand, much less do "everything".
And so we reject some of it as wrong.
There are things some people choose not to believe - like science or transgenderism or evolution. But that isn't all that different from what we take on faith. We have to take it on faith that molecular physics, transistors, OLED screens, jet planes, MRI machines and a host of other items will just work.
As Arthur C Clark once said...
