Eli5: Why is there such a negative response to controversial topics in science, wasn’t the existence of “atoms” extremely controversial back in the days as well?

Question

Shouldn’t people research and discuss topics in a calm and rational manner instead of some sort of “you vs me” type of mentality?

In: 1

Answer 1

People, in general, like stories and narratives. This is more or less how we learn stuff. People, in general, fear or dislike the unknown. So we tend to create stories and myths to explain the unknown (the narrative) and the unknown becomes less frightening because we now have an “explanation”. Over time people get very attached to these narratives and the traditions that come from these narratives.

Imagine being told that sprinkling water, dancing and singing around a sick person doesn’t actually cure diseases. Instead the disease are caused by microbes that cannot be seen. Well you’re now replacing a narrative (that explains and reduces fear) with a new narrative (cannot be seen and goes against tradition).

People don’t like that – we prefer things to fit within our mythology and things that go against that mythology are sometimes rejected with a lot of passion because it introduces fear of the unknown into our lives.