Do You Accept Evolution as a Fact?

[Safiir]

Ka-pi96 said:

Safiir said:

Again - you need years of learning and experience on a subject. Hence why it is dominated by academics or scholars. I mean an average person can't really understand the data collected on global warming for example (since it's currently such a hot topic). It should be available for him, definitely. But he/she simply lacks the knowledge to interpret it.

The raw data perhaps, but that's why scientists publish papers with their theories and all the information they have to back it up. Sure it would still be more complicated to follow than say a recipe book or something, but the average person should still be able to read it and understand why the scientist is presenting that theory and that there is a factual basis suggesting it could possibly be true.

That's kind of why scientists publish stuff, to give people evidence to back up their claims and so it isn't just them saying "this happens because I said it does. Look at all my fancy degrees, that means you should just trust me!".

In theory, yes, an average person should be able to. But in practice that's not how it works. My professional field is clinical trials. Specifically oncology. There are tons and tons and tons of research papers published regarding the different types of cancer and the way to treat it. And yet I am constantly reading posts by people who are adamant that there is a cure for cancer (not differentiating even between blood cancer and solid tumors let alone a more fine categorization) and big pharma are killing everyone that tries to tell people what it is because money. And don't even get me started on vaccines.

The vast majority of people don't want to spend the time to educate themselfs about a specific topic unless it is vital to them. And that's perfectly understandable. You only have so much time. In the end you must rely (at least to a certain degree) on what the experts tell you.

Pemalite said:

Safiir said:

Well, yeah but in order to properly analyse and understand the empirical evidence you do need several qualified (as inknow enough about the subject) people who generally agree on the resu

It's called "Peer Review". And happens extensively in the Scientific Community.

You don't have one person going out and performing a test and using that evidence to build a model which in turn becomes the basis of a Theory... It needs to be verified by other peers.

Exactly.