YES! I came from a double sided background (my mother was an RN but my Oma was from the herbalist camp). I have a BS in bio/chem but also did massage for 10 years, worked with herbs myself etc. On facebook, my personal page has evolved into a discussion grounds for people I respect very highly on almost every side of an issue there is. I STRONGLY believe that any 'side' exist for a reason, there is something true hiding in there. If an idea had zero perceived validity it would cease to exist and we would all agree. Now, of course, that validity may be standing on false information or fear, but there is something true within it. Or when we look at a flaw (say the factory line style education we have in the US) before you can dismantle that , you have to make sure that your new solution not only solves the problems within the thing, but the problems that thing solved ( this model took us from school marms and only wealthy kids having tutors to widespread literacy). A real solution has to be painstakingly well rounded. Lastly, I LOVED your use of the word ritual. I have been sorely disappointed in the narrow mindedness of highly educated stem people. We are all taught a history of science when we study it, and we can all see how many ideas were thought of as "100% true, unfallible" for very lengthy periods of time, only to be laughable now. The arrogance of people in a field which is a culmination of human curiosity and imagination shows that like pedantic clergy, they are doing the motions to get the social/career ladder reward, but the underlying insight that the ritual was only a guide to is lost.
Ps: I have the GMO discussion with so many people. Yes some are very helpful and almost surely benign (golden rice), while others have pretty obvious red flags (round up ready). Also, we have a laundry list 12k years long of human fuck ups, some very severe, so erring on the side of caution when things have possibly deadly, widespread effects just doesn't even seem like something any one could be against?!