While I was growing up during the 1950’s and 1960’s the word “scientific” was bandied about with abandon. Anything that was labeled “scientific” was immediately given credibility, because of the tremendous achievements of the hard sciences like mathematics, chemistry, physics, and engineering. There were phrases like “better living through chemistry” in advertisements. When I became interested in games-playing artificial-intelligence research I found books with titles like Scientific Checkers.
In the 20th century the meaning of the word science took on almost the equivalent of the meaning of the word holy. Anything that was scientific was good and true, by definition. Anything that was unscientific was suspect at best, and probably the result of ignorance and nefarious intentions at worst.
In this environment, the “theory of evolution” (which is never clearly defined by its proponents) was, and continues to be, labeled as scientific. Any challenges to it — no matter the evidence or logic — are thus, by definition, unscientific, and are therefore the result of ignorance, nefarious intentions, or perhaps both.
Real science should be the search for truth, wherever the evidence leads. This has the potential to be discomforting for anyone, if the evidence conflicts with deeply held pre-convictions. So be it.