With a public distrust of scientists comes the idea that “no scientific evidence will ever be compelling”. That’s what we can learn from Creationism, says Andrew Brown, and to solve this distrust we cannot rely on education to help the next generation understand, but instead we must improve science journalism.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but reasonably certain that it isn’t the public understanding of science as most scientists understand that. What they mean by this is teaching people to think more or less as scientists do about the world. That’s admirable in itself: reasonable numeracy, and some knowledge of statistics and of probability, would hugely improve almost everyone’s life. But it won’t solve the underlying problem of trust.
via The Browser