Memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus discusses the reliability of people’s beliefs about their own experiences. Her research suggests—and I think it’s borne out by daily experience—that they’re often not reliable at all. Further, notorious cases involving “recovered memories of abuse,” which she also discusses, demonstrate that expert intervention tends to make things worse. Experts are human like other people, and when they claim to bring memories back they are more likely constructing and implanting them. So it appears that neither private experience nor scientific expertise can be counted on. Presumably, the point applies not only to memories but to all our beliefs. Is that a reason to look into the claims of tradition?