It doesn't work like that. It's more like accepting your heritage and its mistake. I'm European, I'm proud of it and think that my fellow Europeans are tolerant people. Now I still have to live with the fact that we started two World Wars very recently that killed millions of people. I also have to live with the fact that European off-shoots did not always end well, whether I look at the white supremacist movement in the USA, the climate change deniers in Australia or the corrupt politicians in Russia or Argentina. I'm actually very critical of my own country, my own people and my continent, yet I'm still proud of it and the progress we've accomplished so far. Accepting scientific progress is not done to save face, it's done because scientific progress is not up to debate. I know people love to oppose science and religion but that's not how a lot of people see things. Religion is just there to keep you humble and give you a moral compass. That applies whether you are researching science or doing something else.