We scientists need to convey more about the status of our knowledge than can be learned from the muddy "most scientists believe" statement. We need our listeners to know what is tentative and what is not so that they understand better the ragged but cumulative progression of science and can use current knowledge effectively, with an understanding of its inherent uncertainties, in personal and political decision making.

An interesting discussion of scientific semantics, which has come up on MemeStreams in the context of evolution for years, as well as some observations about the difficulty that people who don't have any training in physics face in understanding why we know what we know.