My answers
:
Climate change due to human influence hasn't been properly proved either way, we haven't even bothered trying to find and explore planets which have climates close to our own so why can people so readily take a side on this issue?
Evolution has already been determined to be true by Darwin, religious people find a way to deny anything.
edit: hmmm that's a pretty long list, I'll have to take more time on the answers for the other stuff at least, will edit this post to answer the other four things so bare with me.
How do you determine what to believe (or not) regarding these theories?When I determine what to believe I look at the evidence presented ( if there is any actual fact based evidence, will explain that in the next bit ) if it contains convincing numbers or repeating examples throughout history then that is something that I will base my theories on, has someone who is very interested in economics and now actively trading in tiny amounts on the stock market I can tell you it works as a way of proving a theory right. As we have been told by people history often repeats itself, but what is much more reliable is mathematics that hasn't been messed with in any way by political lobbies, this is why I haven't taken a side on the climate change issue because both sides have been known to use propaganda rather than repetition and math to make their point.
What kind of evidence would convince you to change your mind?It's hard to answer this one, because personally I can never trust anything 100% since that's how human beings are, there will always be things and situations that break a pattern, it can be something predictable but then it can be just something crazy or mind blowing that happens which completely throws off the current evidence. That's just the way humanity is though and I've learned to accept that, for the evolution side of things I think the only way I could be convinced to take a different view on it is if God himself appeared before me and presented everything he'd done, but so far, that just hasn't happened and I doubt it ever will.
In regards to climate change, I think the two sides are about even in the arguments they make, because they keep finding ways to one up each other every now and then, for instance, people who don't believe humans are doing anything have pointed out that mars has had it's ice cap melt before, you also have the fact that the sun is apparently burning more brightly than usual. Then there are the people on the opposite scale who present evidence saying that the gases we emit are being poured into the atmosphere which is also true, so to be honest I don't think either side has won yet so I'm just going to sit on the side lines and observe like an intelligent person rather than just jump to conclusions.
Why do you place trust (or not) in the consensus of the experts in these fields?This seems to be the same question as the one before, as I stated, repetition of history/events and math, this is why we do experiments in science so we can repeat the results constantly, the problem is though there are people who will always deny this kind of evidence.
Given infinite resources, how would you determine the "truth"?Lots of research and experimentation, that's what science is about, but then again there are some things we won't ever find the answer to.
Edit: there we go, didn't take as long as I thought it would
