@toiletpaper @h4890 I think you are right about having a balanced and scientific approach to questioning things. And, perhaps the last 5 years have jaded me more than is good for me. But, let me tell you a true story that demonstrates why today I personally think erroring on the side of disbelief in any human authority, including scientific authority, is the safer bet.

About 32 years ago my then wife and I were friends with another couple that my wife had grown up with from childhood. We were all in our mid 20s and doing the upwardly mobile climb into the middle class. He was finishing studies to be a pediatrician. I can't remember what his wife was doing at that point in her life. I do know that she became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby girl named Hailey. It was their first and, being childless ourselves, we loved Hailey as she began unlocking new parental instincts in both of us as well.

I believe it was at five months that I learned Hailey had passed away suddenly. My wife and I rushed to the hospital and were shown to a private room where the couple sat holding their dead child. They both seemed soulless. Devoid of spirit as they clutched their lifeless Hailey. It was just the five of us in the room and I remember thinking that this was the first time I had ever felt this depth of sadness before. Hailey's funeral, with her tiny coffin, was surreal to me.

Prior to childhood immunizations crib death statistics were not even recorded because they were so rare they were statistically insignificant. The Amish receive no immunizations and have no crib death. These are things I've learned only in the past four or five years.

After Hailey's death I went to all of the SIDS fundraisers, SIDS runs, etc.. I made sure my own infants never flipped on their stomachs and that blankets stayed out of the crib. Imagine that. Me, an adult with an IQ of 121, believing that a perfectly healthy human baby could be killed by sleeping on its stomach or by a blanket in the crib and that otherwise, crib death was just a big medical mystery with no other known reasons. Yet, that's exactly what I believed. I'm not a scientist, but if today you were to ask me which scenario was more likely to have killed Hailey, a blanket in her crib or a cocktail of chemicals injected into her body just days before, today I would choose the latter.

I think of this story and dozens of others like it and am amazed at how easily I was fooled by illegitimate authority. Illegitimate and compromised science. Illegitimate and compromised expert opinion. I think about how comfortable I was living in a realm where I didn't have to concern myself with research and large swaths of science. The experts did that for me. All I had to do was take their food pyramid advice on life and I would be happy. I am disappointed I wasn't instructed to be more questioning of everything no matter what and am regretful I didn't have this understanding and resolve when my children were young.

We don't know what we don't know and this more often than not includes our own limitations and weaknesses. Having a reflexive response of, not doubt necessarily, but curiosity and question about all things is what I currently believe to be the safest position, regardless of the authority.