essentialsaltes
Fact-Based Lifeform
- Oct 17, 2011
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I'm not sure. Surely an authority on any given subject is a de facto expert in that subject.
I think Sagan's point is that we should accept the tentative consensus conclusions of scientific experts not because an authority says so, but because that's where evidence has led expert opinion.
Obviously, there's only so much time in the day for both the man in the street and the scientific experts, but if the man asks "Why do you think life we see today evolved from earlier forms?" an expert should not respond "Because I say so," but should begin talking about homologies and fossils and DNA and...I think it's a good list for s scientist. But for the guy in the street?
And of course, any motivated man in the street can poke around Wikipedia or Evolution 101 or the Smithsonian or the NCSE or... and see the evidence and reasoning laid out.
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