Why Scientific Theories Are Easy Prey For Science Denialism

I think it goes to understanding the difference between a scientific hypothesis and a scientific theory.

A hypothesis is a narrow idea that has to be testable in order to be validated.  This makes a hypothesis very clear cut.  If it's non-testable, throw it out, it's not valid.  If it's been tested, we know the result, either true or false.  If we're waiting to test it, then we say we don't know, but we will soon.  There isn't much science denial associated with hypotheses.

A scientific theory is an explanation which ties together many tested hypotheses (false hypotheses provide information just like true hypotheses do).  To understand a theory you have to understand the history of all those tested hypotheses, and not many people have time or the interest to do that.  A theory can NOT be proven to be true (like a hypothesis can), but it must be capable of being falsifiable. 

Since one can't prove a theory to be true and it's easy to cherry pick an observation that appears to falsify a scientific theory in front of an uneducated audience, some people take advantage to further their personal agenda.

And it can be tough to counter science denial propaganda, because it requires going over the entire history of the science to get the uneducated public to understand it.  Whereas the science denier can dance and weave and bob anywhere in order to interject doubt or fear of whatever science is being attacked

So a health physics denier can cherry pick something like there appears to be no difference in cancer incidence in areas with high background radiation compared with low background areas.

A climate change denier can cherry pick something like the global temperature hasn't increased much in the last decade even though we've added lots of CO2.

An evolution denier can cherry pick something like we can't specify how life began.

It's quick and easy to do that cherry picking, and it would take many boring paragraphs to fully counter those fallacies.

That's why scientific theories are easy prey for science denialism.

That's why organizations like the Marshall Institute, the Discovery Institute, the Heritage Institute, the Heartland Foundation, etc. exist.

Because it's easy.