A person's character or social standing has no logical relation to the truth or falsity of a given claim. Extraterrestrial intelligence exists in the universe. You can have no doubt about this because Robert Stack said so and he is the host of the television show Unsolved Mysteries. Extraterrestrial intelligence exists in the universe. You can have no doubt about this because Professor Williams said so and he is a tenured professor in the Civil Engineering department.
Extraterrestrial intelligence exists in the universe.
You can have no doubt about this because Frank Drake, a leading astronomer, has formulated an equation that estimates 10,000 to 100,000 advanced civilizations exist in the Milky Way galaxy alone. Many disputes in science and technology are settled through appeals to authority and experts. On many occasions the opinion of a relevant authority acts as evidence for a particular conclusion. Still, as a society we have a tendency to quickly validate the authority of scientists even about disputed scientific claims. The fallacy of appeal to irrelevant authority is easy to determine in cases of transferring authority from one field to another such as a television personality or a civil engineer asserting the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.