It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Humans accepted that the world was round generations ago, but for some reason growing numbers of people are regressing back into a “the world is flat” mentality.

This country is in the midst of a measles outbreak, something thought to be impossible at the turn of the century when the disease was nearly eradicated in America. The cause of the outbreak is parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children, putting other children, even those who have been vaccinated, at risk.

If vaccinations were the issue, the problem would be easy to solve, but they are a symptom of a much larger problem. From the reaction to President Obama’s comments about the Crusades to the New York Attorney General’s investigation finding that many herbal supplements contained no herbs, to global warming, too many Americans have been caught up in an arrogance and ignorance that is damaging to our country and their own freedom.

People who oppose vaccinations range the gambit from anti-government purists on the right wing to conspiracy theorists on the left wing, and everywhere in between. All of these people are wrong.

Science has definitively proven there is no link between vaccines and autism, or sudden infant death syndrome, or (insert the latest claim here). The only link between vaccines and anything is prevention of diseases.

These causes are helped by comments of people like Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist by profession, who say they have seen walking and talking kids develop mental disorders after receiving vaccines. This claim ignores one of the most basic elements of logic, that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, but that is lost to the people so convinced that science is wrong.

Radicals on the right spoke up after President Obama’s comments about Christian history in an attempt to explain how Christians have never done anything wrong, and that the Crusades and Inquisition were somebody else’s fault. This argument ignores history, and fails to explain the conquests, slavery, Jim Crow laws, the witch trials and other attriocities committed in the name of Christianity.

Their anger was only matched in vigor by left wing radicals who said all religion is evil and the cause of all suffering in the world. Again, this view ignores history. Whether it was through challenging slavery, fighting poverty, aiding the civil rights movement or one of countless other instances, religion has played a crucial role in some of the most sublime events in history.

Many people, from the left and right, have also insisted that the medical industrial complex was just a conspiracy to keep everyone sick or that God intended for us to be healthy only through natural means, and have turned to natural remedies like herbs for medicine. These people have ignored the advice of doctors in lieu of a pill that, as it turns out, does not contain any of the substance they insist will heal them.

This way of thinking is clearly visible from conspiracy theories to global warming to tax policy, and people across the political spectrum are guilty of it. We ignore the wisdom of experts, be it doctors, scientists, historians, scholars, or analysts, and take the advice of that guy from the bus stop or that girl from that TV thing that one time.

There are only three logical reasons that a person would listen to another person pontificate about anything. First, they are an industry expert, a leader in their field, and they know the ins and outs of how their field works from years of experience. Second, they are a renowned scholar of the subject, and have studied it and its affects on the world for years. Third, because we agree with them. Too many people have been blowing off the first two in favor of the third for far too long, and doing so is dangerous to democracy.

This country was founded on the idea that bad ideas would be overcome through thorough discussion that would give rise to good ideas. To govern themselves, people would make the best choice through informed discussion of the subject. This is impossible if facts are ignored and experts shunned in favor of the musings of the uninformed. Our ignorance is failing our democracy. This antipathy toward facts and science is what led to the dark ages in Europe, and only enlightenment can keep us from regressing back to them.