This is something that freaks me a little about our times. When I was growing up science was the way forward. Nuclear power was offered as clean cheap energy, plastics were good things, medical science was moving in leaps and bounds with transplants etc. Empirical reason had it all, evolution was a done deal. The Scopes trial was old very news and fundamental religions were fastly becoming quaint old relics. Now it is very different. We are in a position of the vast majority scientists saying that we are f#cked unless we do something about emissions and we have to scream to be heard. Parents are not vaccinating their kids and no one trusts GM crops.
What makes it even more scary is the alt Christian right being allowed anywhere near power. These guys want the world to end! They actively work towards Armageddon and end of days. This is like the co-pilot of your 747 being on suicide watch. And those idiots are pussies compared to ISIS.
When did scientific reason become a belief system?

When a person believes something they respond with 'yes of course' or some such.

I know religious people know they are lying because they give a complicated answer like 'yes, I do believe with my whole heart it is true'.

Story of my (ambivalent, vascillating) life.

Except for flat earth.

Scientific evidence is definitely more of a rabble rouser.