I have no problem with Dawkins -- or anyone else -- expressing his own opinion in any area, but I do wish the general public would not unquestioningly accept someone's opinion as authoritative simply on the basis of qualifications in an unrelated area.
"I actually don't believe that there's anyone that's more qualified to take over the CIA than John Brennan, so he cannot be denied, in my view, on the basis of qualifications," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif ., the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
A regular from my website badscience.net - I can barely contain my pride - took McKeith to the Advertising Standards Authority, complaining about her using the title "doctor" on the basis of a qualification gained by correspondence course from a non-accredited American college.
While these are formally recruited by the ministry of education on a strict basis of personal qualification, the ministry often exercises extreme flexibility in favoring the municipalities' candidates even if these are underqualified (Abu-Saad 2013).
"My message is, I'm running on the basis of my qualifications and experience.
"On the basis of his qualifications he is as serious as either of the other two candidates," said Carl B. Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y.
The king's decrees had to be countersigned by ministers responsible to the Sejm, which was partly elected on the basis of property qualifications.
Dynasties in modern dictatorships are common enough – hard to think of an autocrat without thinking of his playboy son, PhD-plagiarising or Ferrari-crashing, who gets appointed something like minister of finance, no doubt on the basis of his qualifications.
