*Climate Change & Evolution Topics Don't use "Belief" when discussing with irrational doubters.
By saying, I believe in C.C. or Evo., one makes it a religious-type acceptance to which doubters respond with a religious-type irrational rejection.
When such a doubter tells me, I do not believe in CC or Evo, I respond:
It is not a question of belief, but whether you accept or reject the established science. If you reject it, then you need to provide commonly accepted scientific findings that provide the basis for your rejection.
This has been successful because it puts the ball in their court to come up with acceptable reasons for their rejection.
The language we use is important in making our points...
We're talking semantics again.
I believe lots of claims. The reason I believe is because I have assessed the evidence for those claims and understand that it is sufficient for me to accept them as likely to be true.
I agree that you can believe for good reasons or bad reasons, but provided you can justify your belief with sound reasoning, then I see no problem with saying that I believe that climate change is happening and that I believe the scientific consensus that the rate of change is being exacerbated by man.
From my perspective the word to avoid is "Faith"
Of course we're talking semantics. And we have to - if we care about meaning!