The subject matter doesn't really matter. But the next time you come across someone whose opinion differs from the scientific consensus, try this:
1. Ask the person if he/she has expertise in the subject, ie. is the person representing himself (I'll just stick with male pronouns for brevity) as an authority.
2. If not, then tell the person you respect expertise and since the person isn't an expert, he may want to learn why the experts differ. The person is lacking knowledge.
3. If the person represents himself as an expert, then as an expert who differs with consensus, there can only be 3 possibilities (there may be more,
a. This person is lacking knowledge the consensus has, so he really isn't an expert.
b. This person has the knowledge, but for religious, ideological or political motivations can't agree with the consensus. In this case the person really isn't an expert because real experts don't let those things interfere with their science, and regardless we're back to a.
c. This person has knowledge the consensus is unaware of. Ask the person when and where he'll be publishing his information so you can track it and so how it plays out in the scientific community.
So ask the person which of these categories he falls into.
See what happens.
If the discussion sinks into a conspiracy theory, tell him you don't do conspiracy theories.
No comments:
Post a Comment