And yet there is a correlation.
Again, correlation does not equal causation.
Why do you want to ignore an obvious correlation?
Supra.
If you give as much attention to a stranger in a bar as you would an expert,
Who said anything about attention?
What matters is the claim being made, not who makes it.
If you're biased towards the expert, then when the expert is wrong, and the drunk is right, you'll reject what the drunk says, despite him being right, simply because you favor the expert.
However, if all you examine is the claim being made, the claim will stand or fall based on the evidence, and aside from unintentional errors made on your own part while examining the evidence, you'll always have made the correct deductions.
This is what it means to be unbiased.
The former easily results in confirmation bias, while the latter makes it extremely difficult to encounter it.
For example:
Bob Enyart debated Michael Shermer back in 2003. Shermer, being an editor with Scientific American and the Skeptic Society, rejects what the Bible says, so Bob, being a pastor and talk show host, asked him if he could at least agree with the Bible when it says that despite the people worshipping the sun as a god, the Bible says that the sun is a light.
Shermer then went on to deny that the sun is a light.
Yet clearly, the sun is, in fact, a light.
Shermer's commitment to his worldview and rejection of the Bible, resulted in him denying reality, simply because he didn't want to agree with the Bible that the sun is a light.
He was
biased towards the "experts."
Don't be like Michael Shermer, Skeeter.
By the way, you can listen to the full encounter here:
kgov.com
And here is the 73-second clip where Bob asks Shermer about the sun being a light:
In context I am clearly making a qualified statement. The missing but understood clause would be: based merely on consensus.
The problem is that consensus doesn't matter when it comes to the validity of a claim.
You examine logic with a cudgel when a scalpel is appropriate.
False.