16 March 2021

As a speaker and teacher I always try to take questions seriously, but because of the topic, sometimes people are belligerent, sometimes hostile. I can almost tell when a belligerent question is coming. (And I have to say, and this is my empirical experience: They’re always men, almost always over 50-ish, and they stand up using belligerent body language.) So this man stands up in a very aggressive way and tone of voice and says: “Well, that’s all well and good, but why should we believe you or trust the science anyway?” I went home that night and thought: “Yeah, that’s a fair question.” There’s an implicit argument that science is trustworthy, but if a person doesn’t assume science is trustworthy, then my story breaks down.

(Naomi Oreskes, “Why Trust Science?”)