Five Reasons Why People Think They Hate Science (and what to do about it!)

I suck at match. Thats why I havent become a scientist. But it never made me not LOVE science

actually, there are so many scientists who wrote GREAT BOOKS explaining science with great concepts, without any mathematics, that its quite weird that there are people capable of disliking science because of such thing.

IMHO, the number 1 reason people dislike science its because it PROVES THEM WRONG.

Meaning, they love science when it creates gadgets for them (they dont even aknowledge it as science), but as soon as you question them about some of their unscientific beliefs, they are ready to bash science.

oops – “what they’re doing”

I just wanna post one comment. When you say “Science is not a belief system. It reflects reality.”, BE CAREFUL. As a chemistry teacher, I must say that science does NOT represent the truth, but gives another point of view of what goes around us. Nowadays, it’s the most accepted view, but being it constructed over models, it’s not really the truth. Actually, it IS a belief system, whose structure is a bit off of what we are used to. There is no truth. There are ways of seeing it. I like the metaphore of Pozo (spanish educator), when he says science is like a binch of blind people trying to tell how an ellephant is by touch: some will focus on the pawn, others on the nose, and so one, and no one will get the whole picture.

Cool, I love it when people put science in a good light. I’m currently reading Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted World, which is fantastic and I recommend the book to everyone.

@ Vitor

I disagree. Science of course does not represent the truth, and yes, it is just another point of view.

However, it is at this moment, THE BEST point of view. It makes more predictions and does its absolute best to provide evidence (and it does) for such claims, more than any other “point of view” on our planet. If science has value then it has some truth to it.

I can do math as in algebra, alegebra II (not geometry, I hate shapes). But when you mix the idea of math with science I just can’t do it at all. mixing equations I have never done before with a bunch of complex big words with even more complex definitions just makes my brain shut down

Most of what you put on your list I have never heard anyone say. In fact what I hear people say about why they hate science is mostly the same thing I say:

1. science is not important to my major (I am planning to teach history, not science so I don’t like wasting money and time on classes I don’t actually need and will more than likely forget by the time second semester starts)
2. it is too textbook and lecture based. If science were more hands on from the time of elementary all the way through high school (and college if it must be taken at the college level) people wouldn’t hate it so much. also I hated it whenever teachers got to do the experiment but never let us get to do anything except watch it. it was always the suckiest “experiments” that no one wanted to do that was hands on in my h.s. chem class.
3. standardized testing just ruins whatever fun you could possibly learn from science. too many of my teachers teach from the test.
4. It just isn’t visual enough. Math and science need to be very visual and very example based but for some reason it is not.

Now I know science is important, but that is why there are people that choose to go into those careers. I just can’t stand that I have to pay and waste my time to take a class that I am not going to remember by the end of winter break (lets face it, none of us actually process and comprehend we just memorize long enough to meet the upcoming goal).

Science sucks and it is boring and I am doing a science project on thanksgiving break and I can’t finisH it cause I don’t have enough information to write a six page report on natural gas!

Lexie you rock!!!!! I love you!!!! This is like Facebook, we can talk about how stupid science is!!!!!

Lexie, Ashlee, and Kelly are dead wrong. Science is a beautiful thing and we all can learn and grow on it!!!

That is none of your business! You are just saying you hate science because you are lazy!!! Your computer is an example of science!! Your phone is an example of science!! Your TV is an example of science!! So is your shower, your iPod, your Radio, and your car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate math, but I LOOOVE science, robots, science fiction, anything science I truly enjoy.

Science was So hard for me to understand when I was young because I had a poor teacher so after I finally figured out how great science is I became a science teacher at vale middle school and it is the best thing that has ever happened to me!! If you love science and children become a science teacher. It’s amazing how many lives change because of teachers!!!!!!!

Science is super cool when the experiments rock!!! Today in science we did a cool experiment with an egg and vinegar and syrup!!!! Science is cool if you give it a chance!!!

I hate science because no matter how much I try to work on it, I always don’t fully understand it or just do it all wrong. And I never know what I’ve done wrong.

I hate it so much.

I think its because kids (like me) absolutely hate school with a passion, and think it’s a waste of time.

I love and I am good at art, poetry, literature, languages, history. But I deeply hate science and the way it is taught at school. And yes, most of the science teachers are very arrogant and contemptuous. My worst nightmare at school!

I don’t think anyone should be forced to like/dislike science. Although, they should be told to respect science’s verdict and science: vice versa. As for me…That’s none of your buisness. Other than that, everyone should just keep an open mind and take a chance with science, or whatever you presently struggle to accept/learn.

The_Thinker, I’m mostly concerned that it’s important for people to know something about science and understand it at some level. If they hate it, well, they’re going to be less likely to learn anything about it.

I hate science, but what I hate more is when people mix two things that have nothing to do with each other. It’s like when a liberal says to a conservative (in the USA)that ‘the entire country is founded on a liberal idea and that you have what you have because of liberals, so saying that you are a conservative goes against your country’–conservatives are the way they are because they believe certain ways on issues and belive that you deserve to keep the money that you earn instead of give it to lazy welfare receivers.
You say that science is technology, and though technology stems in some way from science, the inventors most likely did not even think about chemistry, biology, or physics when creating a cell phone, or a computer. When you think of it your way, you might as well say that everything has to do with science, but even though that is true, that isn’t what people mean by ‘hating science’. What most people hate is the math and the memorization part of it.
Personally, I am great at math, it’s my favorite subject in school. I used to get so confused when people responded to me–after I told them that I hate science–by saying that that doesn’t make sense because I like math. To me, they are completely different things. I don’t understand half of what is taught in science classes but understand math completely. Hey, maybe I’m just weird, but I think it has to do with subject, not how it is taught. For some reason, I just cannot stand it; I cannot remember any of the definitions or equations–and I tried, believe you me–and science still continues to kick my you-know-what to this day. I can’t seem to memorize any of it as if my mind filters out unimportant stuff and science some how gets mislabled.
If someone could explain this to, me I would be grateful. I like the idea of being able to back things up with logical explanations, but the class–forget about it! I hate all of it.

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I love science, science is great. How do you function without the science in the society? However I absolutely hate the arrogance of the irrational skeptics and people who use science to shield themselves to look bigger than they are. People who are closed minded who hides behind the veneer of science. They think their brain is of the highest order, and that the whole world is under their theories and egotistical talks. Science is but a progress towards finding the truth, but not the final truth itself, so quit being arrogant.

These aren’t accurate. I don’t like science because it’s boring, and most of the stuff that’s taught doesn’t help me with life in the future in anyway unless i WANTED to become a scientist. Why should I give a damn about a “golgi body”? What if I simply don’t care, and am not curious? What if I LIKE to not know so I can put it to my imagination? Also, scientists just arent fun people. This is why I think the creative, fun type do not like science

You forgot one big reason: “Science is a horrible career choice. You study very hard, the competition is high, the pay is low and there is almost no job security. So I hate it and encourage others to hate it, too. “