Our culture has in recent decades been characterized by a widespread antagonism toward science and the not-always-welcome messages it brings. Large sections of our population deny scientific evidence and even call into question the competence of science as a descriptor of reality. In short, as John Grant forcefully points out in this important book, they reject reality.

• Is global warming just scaremongering by climatologists conspiring to protect their jobs?
• Is evolution “just a theory”?
• Do vaccinations cause autism?
• Can vitamin supplements cure AIDS?

The answer to all of these questions is, of course, no. The scientific evidence is now in, and it’s conclusive, on these and many further issues that are fundamental to our knowledge and well-being – even our survival. Yet the popular media are full of stories claiming there's still "debate" or "controversy" on these matters – despite the fact that, among the relevant scientists themselves, all debates and controversies about the central conclusions were settled long ago.

What motivates people to deny science? In some cases the answer is ignorance and lack of the ability to think critically: scientific answers can be complicated and nuanced and require some education to understand, while the answers of gurus and quacks seem simpler . . . and thus, to use Stephen Colbert's term, more "truthy." Far more sinister are the active campaigns mounted, through "think tanks" and fake grassroots organizations, by ideological and commercial entities in a deliberate and often far too successful attempt to deceive the public – from fundamentalists promoting Intelligent Design Creationism to the tobacco giants muddling the science on the health effects of smoking to the fossil-fuel corporations claiming climate change is a hoax. Grant surveys these and a gamut of other denials of established science raised by various panics, urban legends and deliberate distortions amid a general climate of misinformation.

ISBN:9781616143992
Retail Price: $25.00
Hard Cover
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