Science is a Religion!
Are you one of the many people that believes that Science is "evidence based" while religion is "faith based"?
There are tons of examples how "Scientific Consensus" is just another religion. Let me give you some.
1) The parallel between "skeptic" and heretic. If you are not convinced be the evidence put forward by the mainstream state funded scientific community, you are frequently considered to be on the lunatic fringe, ousted as a "denier", "skeptic" or "anti-intellectual. You are exorcised from conversations within that community. It is a direct parallel to the way the word "heretic" is used in religious groups.
2) The scientific community has a heroic mythology. It has tales of lone geniuses fighting against religions of the past, battling against other ideologies that the community ardently defends. The history of such characters often strays from historical fact, a kind of mythological retelling of a "hero of the faith" and only seems to accumulate further embellishments with every retelling! The myths are frequently recounted heuristically and pastorally, ie, to teach, persuade, and imitate. Galileo, Thomas Kempis for the man of culture!
3) Science tries to give Meaning to Life. Science has a theory of Origins and seeks to explain mysteries of life beyond mere "facts" about the physical world. It attempts to describe where we come from with Big Bang Cosmology. Really... why should we care about this? Theory of origins seems to be a psychological, religious need. Both Science and Religion explain it in similar ways. Scientists, just like religious scholars, debate its nature, whether it was always there, whether the universe is expanding or contracting. Or whether the expansion or contraction is in fact part of a bigger equation. Why the need for a larger equation?
4) Science has a Mythology of Enlightenment, Transcendence, and Progress. According to this mythology we have ascended from beasts and progressing to become perfect. This is precisely parallel to religious concepts of Buddhist Enlightenment or Christian Sanctification. The Christian and Scientific view of sanctification/enlightenment both have a linear time structure. While for the Buddhist it's cyclic.
The Christian looks back to the death and resurrection of Christ, a fixed point in history. But the Christian does not believe that humans are necessarily improving through mere evolution. If they are improving over linear time, God both controls it, yet that control does not abrogate the imperative given to humans to act. The relationship between time and progress is somewhat complex for a Christian. Atheism gets progress for just being born after their ignorant parents, children of their obsolescent forbears!
5) Science has an Eschatology, a religious theory of last things. The word apocalypse really means unveiling and to the Christian religion which made the word popular an apocalypse really means "the unveiling of Jesus Christ". This is Christian eschatology. The present Scientific eschatology has several versions, not necessarily contradicting, but distinct. One is an unveiling similar to traditional Christianity, but is instead the unveiling of the potential of Man, rather than Jesus Christ. The other Scientific eschatology is the theory of global warming, or numerous other variations such as destruction by an asteroid or Extra-Terrestial forces.
5a) The Eschatological theory of "Unveiling". theory of futurism/transhumanism. According to which man is evolving from beasts into superior or even transcendent organisms. It is a Mythology of Progress. According to which we have ascended from beasts and progressing to become perfect. This is precisely parallel to religious concepts of Buddhist Enlightenment or Christian Sanctification. But the Religious theory of self-perfection is more temporally focused than the Buddhist theory. Having a fixed linear time structure. Christian sanctification also has a linear time-line looking back to the death and resurrection of Christ, but it does not believe that humans are necessarily improving through mere evolution. If they are improving over linear time, God both controls it, yet the control does not abrogate the imperative of action.
5b) The Eschatological theory of "Judgement and Destruction". Global warming, or the destruction of all humans through nuclear warfare. These both describe cataclysmic futures not too different from the claim that hell and judgement await those who sin. The theory of "Climate Change" creates fear in a population, and warns that the world is warming up to the point at which life as we know will disappear ! Much like a hell on earth !
The use of Eschatological warnings for the purpose of control. The warning of hell might be used by Scientists or Theologians, Priests in order to create an attitude of subservience in the people to those in power. In the present day, it demands the lowly plebians to pay taxes and sacrifice their freedom in order to be saved from global warming and an uninhabitable earth, our saviours, the academic elite. In the world of the older, and perhaps the present Catholic church too, it meant paying indulgences(gold) to priests in order to receive forgiveness of sins and be free from eternal damnation. The lowly plebians would be saved by penance to the spiritual elite.
6) Just like religious groups cave to public pressure, and frequently try to dominate public discourse or take political power, the priests of the Scientific community do precisely the same. Their institutions are frequently sponsored by the State, are Monolithic institution that attempts to dominate every part of every body elses personal life, effectively making them the modern equivalent to the ancient Shaman, who was an advisor to the chief of his tribe. So although "Science" might sound like a good idealization, every community including the Scientific is perverted by the desire to be accepted by culture or to receive state funding.
Please stop assuming that "Science" is equivalent to good and "Religion" is equivalent to bad. Be very careful when discussing them, because the communities that surround Science and Religion are from an institutional point of view, precisely the same.