The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Critical Thinking
&#x27;Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.&#x27;<p>It&#x27;d be interesting to see what is left after applying this consistently to scientific announcements.  E.g. much of the pro climate change arguments I see are: all the scientists think it is happening, so it must be happening.  Not saying they are wrong, but why should only science get a pass when it comes to argument from authority?<p>Science is not the only field with experts, and it&#x27;s hard to argue that only scientific expertise is real expertise without going in circles (which requires an expert in philosophy to avoid ;).