# Personal beliefs based on an appeal to authority . . . in science? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 29, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-beliefs-based-on-an-appeal-to-authority-in-science/504639 "2009-07-29T04:31:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-beliefs-based-on-an-appeal-to-authority-in-science/504639/1 "2009-07-29T04:31:15Z")
I have very little doubt that Einstein’s theories of relativity are accurate descriptions of the way the world works. I am confident that if I were to go up in a space ship and approach the speed of light, and then return, the wristwatch on my arm would lag significantly behind the wall clock on my bedroom. I am confident in the Big Bang theory and what I’ve been told about quantum mechanics. I believe the Universe is expanding, and that the speed of light in a vacuum cannot be exceeded by anything with mass. But I have never read any of the scientific papers on which these theories are based; and, having never really mastered differential calculus, I probably wouldn’t understand very much of them. I’ve never performed any relevant experiments. Instead, I base my beliefs on what I’ve read and seen on TV, as these mediums have brought me the words of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and of course Albert Einstein. If you challenged any of my above beliefs, I could only do so through appeal to authority. I have no other way of defending my belief in the Big Bang other than, that’s what wiser men than me have said. Unless you actually are a physicist and are fully capable of understanding the math involved, I imagine the same more or less holds for you as well. So, on a _personal level_, how are such beliefs any different than espousal of (say) transubstantiation, reincarnation or karma? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/personal-beliefs-based-on-an-appeal-to-authority-in-science/504639)._