It's incongruous, that analogy, anyway.
Nope. I personally would not be better at fixing a car than a mechanic. However, I could read and understand the manual, and if I saw a mechanic doing things the manual says may be detrimental, I would be right to question him, and even fire him.
I didn't made the analogy, you did... Of course, if you see a doctor doing something wrong, you should not trust him... But i would not trust much in a manual, or a medical Journal, i rather ask several doctors/mechanics and then decide... The thing with medical journals is not about understanding them, is about knowing what is not written there...
Blind trust in authority is foolish.
Who would you trust?... There are many areas where i rather trust in the experts than my self, of course i always going to use my common sense...
I'd rather trust reality, or as close as we can get to it. Of course I would hope to trust an expert, but when an expert does something, says something, illogical and not in accordance with the manual (reality) I question it.
And, indeed, if you read the long list of studies I referenced in the post, you can see I am trusting them!!!