How Important are the Opinions of Experts in the Search for Knowledge.

Opinions are personal understandings of a subject matter. Experts could be said to be people that have studied a particular aspect of the world and so have acquired the knowledge required to air out their own opinion on any matter pertaining to that which they know. Before someone can be referred to as an expert, he must have an accepted minimum knowledge before he/she will be given ear. Criterias such as what qualifies someone to be an expert should be considered. Opinions are someones personal understanding of the subject matter and so its not a general view on the subject. It could very well be a biased opinion as a result of either emotional feelings towards the subject matter probably because of an earlier experience in life, or beliefs being their religion. Example being a Christian not succumbing to the idea of abortion as it is seen as murder which goes against one of the ten commandments and a person of no religion with the belief that there is nothing wrong with abortion other than not wanting to have a child at that very moment. Opinions can also be exaggerated. A good example was when Al Gore made the whole world believe that humans are the sole cause of global warming, of course this was disproved that humans are the sole cause of global warming, it was found out that humans contribute a merely 3% of carbon dioxide emissions which to start with is not the main gas causing the earth to heat up. Opinions can also be understated meaning that experts could be hiding something and not revealing the 100% truth about the subject matter. It could be that the 100% truth could cause harm to the world or that he/she is wanting to keep such knowledge to themselves. This ultimately points that experts could have an ulterior motive behind their opinion, wanting to deceive the public probably to their gain, as was rumoured to be the case involving Al Gore and humans causing global warming. It was rumoured that it was a plan to get money. Opinions could also be based on inconsistent facts that end up miss-leading people. If an expert is able to make an honest opinion without any of these setbacks, they can have massive effects. Such experts are seen as well educated people that dont just say things without thinking. Opinions can lead to ground breaking

discoveries as most often than not they are thought provoking. They tend to appeal to the thinking part of people. Expert opinions also help people when conducting researches as they are sometimes used as a foundation for researches.