How can you not believe in evolution?

Nous sommes en 2023, nous savons que nous vivons dans l'ère de la post-vérité, de la guerre informationnelle et des bulles de filtres algorithmiques, qui enferment les citoyens dans des convictions que rien ni personne (ni média, ni scientifique, ni proche) ne pourra ébranler. Comment en effet changer d'avis lorsque vos semblables vous confortent, lorsque le fact-checking est suspect, lorsqu'on se pense clairvoyant ?

Remercions ce cher Donald Trump d'avoir mis le monde sur cette voie, en popularisant le concept de "fake news", en relayant des "faits alternatifs" [alternative facts] et et autres "truthfull hyperboles".

On peut dès lors regarder avec un brin de nostalgie la scène suivante de Friends (1996), époque à laquelle un discours anti-sciences semblait pouvoir n'être le fait que de doux originaux.

Phoebe : [...] You know, there’re a lot of things that I don’t believe in, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true.

Joey : Such as?

Phoebe : Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?

Ross : Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don’t, uh, you don’t believe in evolution?

Phoebe : Nah. Not really.

Ross : You don’t believe in evolution?

Phoebe : I don’t know, it’s just, you know...monkeys, Darwin, you know, it’s a, it’s a nice story, I just think it’s a little too easy.

Ross : Too easy? Too...The process of every living thing on this planet evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms, too easy?

Phoebe : Yeah, I just don’t buy it.

Ross : Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we breathe, like gravity.

Phoebe : Ok, don’t get me started on gravity.

*

*      *

Ross : How can you not believe in evolution?

Phoebe : Just don’t. Look at this funky shirt!

Ross : Pheebs, I have studied evolution my entire adult life. Ok, I can tell you, we have collected fossils from all over the world that actually show the evolution of different species, ok? You can literally see them evolving through time.

Phoebe : Really? You can actually see it?

Ross : You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over.

Phoebe : See, I didn’t know that.

Ross : Well, there you go.

Phoebe : Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there, and why?

Friends, The One Where Heckles Dies (S2E03, 1996)