[RightWingAtheist]

Well, I would expect some sort of valid certification from my doctor or dentist before they did anything to me. On the other hand, there is a lot nonesense coming from people with graduate degrees from prestigious and mainstream institutions. I've met people in major universities who are seriously into astrology and New Age quackery (none of whom, admittedly, are in the hard sciences). Regardless, an informed opinion is always preferable to an ignorant one.

[Agnes Heep]

Well, I would expect some sort of valid certification from my doctor or dentist before they did anything to me. ... Regardless, an informed opinion is always preferable to an ignorant one.

Remember the passage in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" where Brown discovers that a certain old woman is actually a witch?

"That old woman taught me my catechism," said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.

Now, his catechism was his catechism, whether it was taught to him by the holiest saints in heaven or the devil himself. The fact that it was taught him by a witch makes him believe that it's somehow less valid.

Knowledge in any field can always be tested and certified, if you're concerned about competency, but when you've reached a juncture where only knowledge acquired in a certain way is valid, there is, I believe, a problem.