In academic circles most of it comes from philosophers of mind, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness
In this case that might mean (a) providing enough information to explain why escalating the question is necessary to the discussion, as opposed to a closet insult, and (b) using impersonal language. For example, you already changed your wording from "do you know what science is" to "what is science". That's a big difference.