I reckon part of the problem is that many people take the results of diverse scientific studies as absolute claims (event x happens all the time in every subject), instead of the highly delimited, circumstantial and restricted results that are actually being reported (event x happens sometimes in subject y when doing z).
This is also why some people throw their hands up in despair and make claims like "Science doesn't work, because every couple of months you find a study that contradicts previous findings". It is not that science doesn't work or that we cannot get any valuable knowledge from it, it is just that living systems and phenomena are way too complex to be replicated and understood under limited experimental conditions. However, looking at the pros and cons and integrating the evidence obtained so far, one can get a bettter idea of what the big picture is actually like.
Completely agree! Then you throw in a bunch of hierarchical institutions, power dynamics, individual motives and dogma and science (as a noun) begins to look a lot like a religion!
I don't think is only that. I believe most people are completely clueless. Check my latest post and the comments underneath. It is clearly a joke but people take it seriously.
https://steemit.com/health/@kyriacos/food-containing-chemicals-is-going-to-kill-you