I think we can look at some of the reaction of creos as part of the self image of themselves. It is fair to say (I would contend) that the beliefs we hold become tied up in our percepion of who we are.
This hold true for religious or scientific concepts as we can see religious wars and wars of words between two conflicting theorist being an extraplotion of this.
1) Scientists are liars and conspire to defraud the public
2) Scientists are incompetent at doing science
I think that anyone would level the above form of criticism only as a last resort as it is form of violence against the person/people addressed.