I believe that our education system, and the tendency for scientific influencers to get needlessly divisive when it comes to politics and religion, have gotten us into this anti-intellectual mess that we’re currently dealing with. I mean… People distrust science not because science is bad in their eyes. People largely distrust science because they don’t trust scientists. In other words, people are much less likely to trust science if they don't trust the people who communicate it.

The problem is, scientists tend to suck at communicating with people. 

Also, people write off science when it seems to conflict with their deeply held beliefs/values. Scientists, more often than not, add fuel to this fire by not taking into account what people believe. More specifically, scientists rarely discuss how a scientific fact can coexist with one’s personal beliefs, which we all have. 

In other words, if one’s going to teach science effectively, they have to be able to engage with very difficult questions that people have about what science has to say, as well as how science impacts things like religious beliefs. 

Take evolution for example. The theory of evolution- that is, all living things evolved from the same common ancestor- is a fact. Meanwhile, 33% of the world’s population is Christian. Bringing it closer to home, 69% of Americans identify as Christian. What about the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, then? Does the theory of evolution negate the truth that Genesis was trying to convey when it talks about God creating Adam and Eve? If so, then what else does the Bible get wrong? Is the Bible wrong about the existence of God, too? 

On the surface, absolutely! Naturally, when people are confronted by a belief-shattering, surface-level answer like that, people will immediately deny it, thus denying science in favor of Christianity. 

But, if one decides to be brave and take an hour to actually study and understand what the authors of Genesis were trying to convey- that being, one God created everything and He is deeply interested in His creation on a personal level- then, no. The theory of evolution does not negate the truth that Genesis is attempting to convey. Genesis may not be literally true, meaning that God didn’t literally create Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam’s rib. But Genesis still conveys a fundamental truth that Christians believe God created the universe and everything in it, including us.

That fundamental truth does not conflict with the theory of evolution, because it doesn’t claim to know how God created humans, just that He did create humans. Also, Genesis was put in the form of a narrative because that’s how people communicated with each other before most people knew how to read and write. And guess what: it’s much easier for us to remember things when they’re put in a narrative form, rather than just a statement like, “God created people for a specific purpose, period.” 

Long story short, God can still exist, and the Bible can still be true. And science can be true. 

So… what does all of this have to do with what I said at the very beginning of this piece? That being a very real fear I feel whenever I think about the failures of scientific communication, and how it can be fixed?