There are days when I really try to understand the human ignorance, scientific illiteracy, or a need to justify personal beliefs by using misinformation. As much as I can honestly understand the people who lack of insights about how to properly check the facts, I am amazed when an educated (1) person shows utter scientific ignorance; This is the reason why we have so many problems in diverse social areas.
However, higher education level is not the only way to reach real scientific proficiency; to learn how to think. It is more about the passion and open-minded pre-sets, which help us to be curious and to dedicate some of our time for real research.
During my lifetime I’ve met high educated people who are doing their jobs as supposed, but without real critical thinking ability, let alone being scientifically literate, and I’ve met those without high education level who are excellent polymathic thinkers, despite being unable to organise their thoughts better due to absence of systematically acquired knowledge. The latter ones are those who I admire at most, because one need a lot of self-discipline, dedication and passion in order to reach, or even to compete against “formally” high educated people. It is not the absolute rule, but many of them are able to see what some with higher education are unable and to differentiate between plausible and unplausible claims (pseudoscience).
What does all of this have to do with title of this article? Well, for a long time I am witnessing the blatant misuse of scientific information by the people who are uneducated, or “educated” but scientifically illiterate, or who are trying to justify own beliefs with false information (often religious theodicy narrative), etc. This practice of misinformation is starting to be more than dangerous. The earth-flatters, anti-vaccine movement, climate change deniers, diverse religious groups, esoteric, etc., are the main aggregators of this phenomenon. For instance, the so called “Albert Einstein Humiliates Atheist Quote” is the best example of it (2). The religious groups are obviously so desperate to prove the god’s existence by falsifying the Einstein’s thoughts. That is understandable, because Einstein was a great scientist and if a scientist of Einstein’s magnitude says “I am a theist” that is surely the ultimate jackpot! However, that is a complete nonsense. Those who know anything about Einstein’s biography would recognize what kind of scam is happening here. At the same time, the quote is the “school” example of Theodicy, the attempt to justify all evil in the world without implying god’s responsibility. Nonetheless, the quote remains only as “attempt”, because (by paraphrasing the great thinker George Carlin): “…god never existed and never will…”!
At the end, what one can do against such destructive trend? Every honest human being (3) should raise the voice and fight against the dumbification of humanity, and help anyone who wants to think critically and real progressive to get rid of the double standard argumentation, to learn how to see bigger picture, etc. This is not an easy task, because e.g., many non-religious won’t admit they are wrong, just as much as the religiously indoctrinated people do.
Scientifically Literate Junction 