I have an opinion about everything, maybe I'm wrong, or not

Is everyone entitled to an opinion about everything?  Or, Anything?  Who is qualified to postulate and adequately defend an opinion?  I submit, it might be a smaller number than we all think.  When I see talking heads on TV, when I see admitted non experts writing quasi scholarly books on oil shortages, global warming, and why God doesn't exist I'm tempted to say, "How bout a nice cup of shut the heck up" (heck is a replacement word). 

 

We have drifted into a culture born of talk radio where there is a democracy of thought which says, "everyone is entitled to their own opinion".  That's just not true.  Oh, you are entitled, and we are entitled to dismiss you as uninformed if you come on with some half baked thesis born out of ignorance.  I know, I'm an expert at being half baked and dismissed a great deal.  My heart's not broken.  I'll not stop.

 

Here's the real question.  Are there areas of knowledge (medicine, aeromechanics, history, calculus, archeology, engineering, computer science, physics, astronomy, english literature, geology, and a hundred other disciplines) where most people are frankly just out of their realm?  Is it possible that there are areas than not having enough depth of understanding or vocabulary in an area to present a meaningful argument or debate precludes the capacity to enter into the debate with any competence or expectation of success whatsoever? 

 

There are times when the discussion or debate is not possible because of asymmetrical expertise on the part of the participants?  It's not that someone can't argue.  It's just that without an even depth of understanding, the arguments are meaningless.  They can only be ignored or mollified, not answered except to say, go research this, and then when you have the answer, come back. 

 

I know nothing about mathematics.  In school I did badly  in math. I have a friend, Max, who is a PhD in Mathematics.  If I decided to argue with him that it's impossible to accurately measure a 4 sided area if one side is curved or irregular he would be courteous but somewhat dismissive.  If I insisted I was right, he should appropriately smile and say, look it up.  Study calculus.  Argument with me, for Max,  would be fruitless.  It would only upset me and would not persuade Max whatsoever.  He is an expert.  I am a novice.  Oh, I took Grade School, High School and Some College Math.  All were painful.  Even with this background, other than using a calculator, I'm not competent to field an effective debate about theoretical mathematics. 

 

I am not an expert in many things.  But I am pretty well informed and considered expert in a few.  Horticulture,The Bible & Faith, Marketing and Marketplace Macroeconomics which has come from decades of studying mob mentalities of the marketplace in stocks, bonds, and futures trading.  All of these areas came from the school of hard knocks, study, formal education, time, activity, and serious dedication to them.  I have other areas of interest, politics, sociology, international affairs, music, Shakespeare, Opera, and a few others.  But they pale in comparison to what I really know and I don't claim much expertise.  I would come at them with a fair amount of trepidation.

 

I don't get many people that challenge me in Horticulture.  I know what I'm talking about and it seems to satisfy. 

 

I don't have many people question my Marketing expertise.  It's pretty well proven by the anvil of experience.

 

Even in Macroeconomics, I don't get too many people who want to argue about it because it's pretty straightforward and subjective.

 

The area that always puzzles me is that I get into banal discussions from people who shouldn't be even trying to do other than ask questions in the area of Faith. 

I'm always amazed.  Everyone has an opinion.  Everyone because they went to Sunday School is an expert.  They may not have ever read the Bible cover to cover once, let alone several times as my wife has, they may not have studied under good bible teachers, in fact those with the most "opinions" are the ones who hardly ever darken a Church Door.  But they have opinons.  Of WHAT?  Oprah, Crystals, Deepak Chopra?  It's amazing.

 

I have been really critical in the past of the level of Biblical ignorance in this country.  We have pastors across the nation who's level of Bible scholarship is pathetic.  Yet, they have opinions, views and ideas which they express like they come from the pages of scripture.  And they are baseless. 

 

My hope is if we are on the verge of a new awakening that we will end up with more and better debate of substance and not that which is all hat and no gun.