A key aspect of being human, in the literal and figurative sense, is rationality. It separates us from our pets.
Not in a good way, we are a lot less rational than other animals and we even strive to make our irrational aspects rational - which is not rational at all. An alien who visited Earth and looked at us like a human evolutionary psychologist does would be searching for a biological reason we wear neckties. Elaborate papers would be written about how, like red monkey butts and peacock plumes, they must help us get mates. And they do, but only circumstantially. A necktie means that a guy likely has a job and that brings with it other social characteristics that a woman might find attractive once she is out of that I-am-supporting-a-boyfriend-'who-is-getting-his-band-together' phase. She may always have an irrational soft spot for bad boys, but her rationality takes over.
Trying to explain neckties in a rational way is pointless. Irrationality is what makes us human and less like ants.
Science is inherently rational, it seeks to explain the world according to natural laws. That is why the term 'supernatural' exists. It connotes non-science. Yet there are times it is perfectly rational to be wary of things we don't understand. If I open my garage door tomorrow and a lion is sitting there, a rational biologist might note that lions don't just spontaneously generate, this one likely came from a zoo and is tame. A rational sociologist might say we should not stereotype the lion unfairly and should get to know it before deciding she is dangerous. Closing the garage door immediately might be, to them, irrational. Yet rationality supercedes irrationality in the form of the precautionary principle. There is a 100 percent chance I don't get eaten if I close the garage door and very little chance of anything meaningful happening. It can also happen the other way around.
I am irrational about food to some, for example. As my friends and family can attest, if I had my way nothing that goes into the mouths of my family would be grown, killed, cut, cleaned, processed and cooked by anyone but me - that is not rational to most people. Yet even though I have specific beliefs about food I have far more confidence in genetically modified foods than I do in anything 'organic' bought at Whole Foods - that is not rational to most people in the organic movement.
Yet it is entirely rational. Understanding the level of scrutiny that goes into genetic modifications and the level of scrutiny about organic foods, it is easy to see which has better control. No one has even gotten so much as a stomach-ache from a genetically modified food and yet tens of thousands of people have been poisoned or died from organic foods as they have increased in popularity. When Consumer Reports tested organic food they found 25 percent had synthetic pesticide residue. Since the USDA only considered organic food a process, they don't much care
In California, well-funded parties are arguing over Proposition 37, the Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. Knowing what is in food is inherently rational under the precautionary principle. Yet genetically modified food is unable to harm humans. Worrying about it is as silly as arguing about genetically modified music. How can educated people who consider themselves scientifically literate believe that science studies are wrong and supernatural forces are going to harm them if they eat a product that contains corn syrup that had a genetic modification? Studies show that, while we all claim to want a more scientifically literate society, it really only applies to positions we accept. Scientifically literate people are inherently more skeptical; they are skeptical about genetic modification, they are skeptical about global warming.
