A recent Associated Press- GfK poll taken revealed that most Americans are skeptical when it comes to topics such as the Big Bang theory, evolution, and global warming. It also revealed that Americans are more inclined to believe and support simpler concepts related to health and genetics.

These results disappoint a few of America’s top scientists, including Randy Schekman, the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine. Schekman explains that society is very ignorant towards scientific facts. He also adds that it doesn’t help that some of the national leaders are candidly opposed to established concepts.

There are many reasons that most Americans tend to value these ideas over science, with political affiliation and religious views being at the top of the list. The poll found that Republicans are more inclined to express doubts towards scientific evolution and changes in climate than their Democratic counterparts.

Similarly, religious views are just as important. According to the Associated Press, faith in a higher being or power drastically diminishes confidence towards those scientific concepts.

Faith And Science

Duke University Professor and Nobel Prize winner Robert Lefkowitz states, “…facts can’t argue against faith.”

People are keener to believe in facts that they see with their own eyes. Things that have happened in the past have less of an influence on values than concepts that a person has experienced themselves.

“I wasn’t there,” explains Jorge Delarosa, a 39-year-old architect from Bridgewater, N.J., when asked about the Earths beginnings. However, Jorge also stated that he did notice that 2012 was without a winter and much warmer, implying that he definitely feels a change and that there must be a reason.

After witnessing many of her family members who were smokers die of cancer, Marsha Brooks, a 59-year-old Washington, D.C. native, says she is certain that smoking does cause cancer. She has doubts however, when asked about the Big Bang theory or how the Earth began. “It could be a lack of knowledge. It seems so far away,” she explains.

It seems that science often loses out to politics and religious views because you cannot contest faith as you can science. Professor Robert Lefkowitz points out that the trouble science has had against faith makes sense now, stating “… science would have made no headway because faith is untestable.”

So, What Exactly Is The Big Bang?

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