The conflation of experimentally verifiable science and observational science (and, even more so, social sciences) is the crux of the issue. This is not to say that observational or social sciences are useless, but that they are less authoritative and more open to confounding variables than experimental science. People use the results of the later as if they have the authority of the former.
It is quite useful rhetorically and, unfortunately, as is so often the case, good rhetoric wins.
The conflation of experimentally verifiable science and observational science (and, even more so, social sciences) is the crux of the issue. This is not to say that observational or social sciences are useless, but that they are less authoritative and more open to confounding variables than experimental science. People use the results of the later as if they have the authority of the former.
It is quite useful rhetorically and, unfortunately, as is so often the case, good rhetoric wins.
What, do you hate science?