There’s people who -know stuff- and should be listened to. Stephen Hawking and astrophysics. General Shinzeki and strategic and tactical operation needs in Iraq (he openly contradicted Rummy’s estimates).

There’s the obviously false authorities (usually ‘pop’ stars’) that have no remote connection to whatever it is that they’re talking about, and yet someone’s still paying them to yap on about it.

There’s extended false authorities, like Mr. Bush thinking he had kingly duties to authorize anything he wanted in a democracy of checks and balances (though apparently those checks and balances were on vacation…)

Then there’s stealth fakers, typified by the “Studies” made by corporate or other ‘lobbying’ groups that make use of the oddities in the methods statistics to skew numbers in their favor, and thus “Prove” a point through “Science” that is in fact neither proven nor scientific, just spun and marketed.

The tricky bit is knowing which one you’re dealing with.

Citing religious figures often comes down to a “they’re right because they’re right” discussion… which proves nothing.

BTW, yours has immediately become my favorite webcomic.