Does it matter who says it?
Science says: “It doesn’t matter who said it. What matters is the evidence and the reasoning.”
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts
Richard Feynman
Thomas Hobbes said much the same:
Words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man.
Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
Roland Barthes argued that the text says what the reader reads:
To give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text… a text’s unity lies not in its origins but in its destination.
Roland Barthes – The Death of the Author
But lived experience and our hearts tell us that it matters a great deal who is speaking, and why.
And faith tells us that even our hearts can deceive us.
So what?
Listen carefully, and take care who you listen to.