There was a brief "conversation" on CNN the other day between an anchor and a science writer concerning global warming.

The writer said that "thousands" of scientists agree that warming is real but inevitably a comparative handful deny it, just like others (or maybe the same ones) deny the reality of evolution (and just like you can find some MDs to appear on commercials for all kinds of unreliable "miracle" products.)

The anchor argued that it was "really" a "political" problem and not a scientific one, because one side says one thing and the other says another, and you never know for sure.

She also jumped on his use of the word "probably": "There's that word again!"

That's the level of scientific understanding of even well-educated people: "If it ain't 110% certain, it's fifty-fifty! Which means my side wins. And you can't prove otherwise!"