Why We Trust Scientists

At left is a meme supporting the mode of thinking employed by conspiracy theorists, i.e., that they, unlike the rest of us, “have the cognitive capacity to think critically for themselves.”

In fact, the reason that reasonable people trust science is that we’re aware that we lack the time and resources to conduct this research ourselves: formulating hypotheses, experiment design and execution, analysis of results, drawing conclusions, publishing findings, and having them peer reviewed.

Shortly after I entered the field of climate science and interviewed Dr. V. Ramanathan at the Scripps Institute, one of the world’s leading experts on the subject, a well-meaning guy suggested that I come to my own independent conclusions on the subject.  I respectfully pointed out that “Ram” (as he likes to be called, is one of tens of thousands of people who have made it their lifework to study this subject, each of which has a serious head start over me, including several decades of work, uncountable terabytes of data, and billions of dollars of surveillance equipment on and above the Earth.

I’m equally unqualified to “do my own research” in disease control, anthropology, molecular biology, and quantum physics.

If a few crackpots think this renders me intellectually deficient or gullible, I’ll have to learn to live with that.