Vaccine-autism claims, GMO "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter, a trend that spells disaster for human progress

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion, they're even entitled to their opinion about progress," says journalist Michael Specter. "But ... you're not entitled to your own facts."

Why is there such a tremendous epidemic of denialism? The main reason is due to our lack of understanding of correlation versus causation. Another is our loss of faith in authority and our mistrust of big government, big corporations and "Big Pharma" (so we then leap into the open arms of big placebo).

"Be skeptical. Ask questions. Demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted," remarks Mr Specter. "But here's the thing: when you get proof, you need to accept the proof. And we're not that good at doing that. ...We're now in an epidemic of fear like one that I've never seen and hope never to see again."

Unfortunately, this fear is motivating people to replace science with a belief in magic, from seemingly harmless magic such as Ginkgo biloba, echinacia, and açaí, to tragic magic such as using coffee enemas to cure cancer, or even insisting that beet root can cure HIV. People fight genetically engineered food, and think it's wrong to patent life and crop seeds -- and they blame science for these problems. But these issues are about law, morality and corporate greed, not science.

"Science is not a company, it's not a country, it's not even an idea. It's a process," Mr Specter points out. "[T]he idea that we should not allow science to do its job because we're afraid is really very deadening, and it's preventing millions of people from prospering."

The solution? Mr Specter mentions that we should fix the system instead of stopping scientific progress.

This interesting presentation explores how denialism impacts humanity with avoidable tragedies:

Even though denialism is a topic that desperately needs to be addressed, and Michael Specter clearly has the passion to advocate on behalf of science, he does not present workable solutions for most of the problems that he describes. I think people are more likely to listen to him if he mentions even one such solution. What are your thoughts?

Michael Specter is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He wrote the book, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives [Amazon UK; Amazon US], which asks why we have increasingly begun to fear scientific advances instead of embracing them.

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