I've Heard Of These Crackpots

Stephen M. Barr writes on when you should trust the experts at the First Things Blog:

In the final analysis, it is the experts who must police things. Generally, in the natural sciences this works. The kooks are kept out and largely ignored. Of course the kooks bitterly complain that "the establishment" is out to get them, as it was out to get all the other great rebel-geniuses they imagine scientific history to be full of. The problem in so many other fields is that not a few of the experts give every appearance of being kooks themselves. Architectural experts destroy beautiful old Catholic churches. Liturgical experts give us liturgies that are painful and embarrassing ordeals. Literary theorists write impenetrable prose. Psychologists give us twinky defenses. The question arises: When is one to trust the experts and when is one to trust one's own instincts? It may be the central problem of our times.

My own guiding principle is to trust the experts (generally speaking) on anything purely technical, but to rely more on my own judgment as far as human realities go. I trust the architect on what will keep the building up but not on what is beautiful. I trust the pediatrician, but not the child psychologist. When we had our first child, my wife read a number of books on how to raise one's kids. I never wanted to hear what they had to say, much to her annoyance. She noted that they had degrees in the subject and I didn't. My own feeling was that if it took a degree to raise a child properly, the human race would have died out 100,000 years ago. I'd rather trust my parents' advice and example and my own instincts in such matters than some egghead of dubious sanity.

But physics is a technical field, and so, if you want to know whether a theory of physics makes any sense, it is a pretty safe bet to trust the professional physics community. Trust me on that. I am an expert.

One of the other problems in relying on "expert" opinion, is that is many cases--raising children an obvious one--you can easily find as many different opinions as experts. Which one should you trust? I'm with Barr in following the experts on technical matters, but sticking with common sense, experience, and tradition in the "softer" areas of life.