Daniel - I think part of the answer paradoxically is that the scientific process is so appealling to so many. I love the ideal of rationality and rational problem solving to adress our challenges. However - despite my incliniations - I find myself very sympathetic to the skeptics for a couple of reasons.
One is that asking questions - even outlandish questions - is central to the scientific process and a big part of the fun. "What if...." now it seems that when you ask politically incorrect the wrong questions, the scientific establishment goes on a massive name calling campaign ... REALLY - they usually respond to challenges with name calling and frustration. this repsonse just makes people like me a bit angry and very skeptical. why the defensiveness rather than curiosity. Your article is part of it - while not as big on the name calling, it really is very condescending to alternative points of view or questions. Put it this way. I was attracted to science because it let me pose any hypothesis I wanted - all I had to do was follow a logical line in supporting it. Now it seems that there are a whole lot of hypotheses that are off limits and that getting interested in one gets you licked out of the club.
The 2nd reason is that so many scientific studies re so badly done. Standards are really low. Maistream scientists that I respect regularily tell me that at least 50% of studies - including many that drive public policy - are so badly designed and secuted as to make the results worthless.
So when scientists tell the world - just believe us, we don't even though we really want to.
