When I was in college, I had a teacher (we'll call her Dr. Tutor) who caused quite a bit of a stir by claiming that the basilisk lizard is an amphibian, not a reptile. Me and a few other students called her out on this claim. A basilisk lizard is a reptile, not an amphibian. This resulted in quite a bit of controversy. Me and my fellow students were "overruled" by authority. "It is not for you to question me, you just have to accept what I teach", she insisted. She appealed to her own credentials, not to any logical argument.
The more intelligent students continued to question her teachings, but other students accepted her reasoning. She had a doctorate in biology (something which none of the other tutors had), and we did not. So, clearly, she's right, we're wrong. Basilisk lizards are amphibians, not reptiles.
The dispute went on, and we appealed to the other tutors. We asked them the simple question "Is a basilisk lizard a reptile, or an amphibian"? They answered reptile, until we revealed our reasoning for asking: Dr Tutor says they're amphibians. Suddenly, they second guessed themselves. The most basic and easily verifiable truths they knew suddenly went out of the window, because thus saith the infallible Dr. Tutor.
A reptile is a vertebrate animal distinguished by having a dry scaly skin and typically laying soft-shelled eggs on land (there are exceptions, such as adders, which is another thing Dr. Tutor denied). Amphibians, by contrast, are cold-blooded vertebrate animals distinguished by having an aquatic (water dwelling), gill-breathing larval stage, typically followed by a terrestrial (land dwelling), lung-breathing adult stage.
Based on the above definitions, which are readily available in any biology book, a basilisk lizard is a reptile, not an amphibian. Note how I'm not saying "this authority says it, therefore it's true". I'm defining my terms, then using observed facts to show how basilisk lizards are classified on the Linnaean scale. Appeal to authority would have lead to Dr. Tutor and myself and my fellow students being wrong (and since our coursework was independently examined, would probably have resulted in mass failure). But by using our reasoning skills, the person with more credentials ended up being the one making the worst mistakes.
As a reasonable human being, I'm quite happy to disagree with someone smarter than me if that means I'm right and they're wrong. For this reason, I don't care how many letters there are surrounding your name, if you cannot give me a good reason to believe in Evolution, I won't believe in Evolution. As it stands, I've been an apologist for more than a decade, before which time I actually was an Evolutionist. That's more than enough time for Evolutionists to have provided a convincing argument to me, or for me to have found one myself (which I still attempt to do by playing devil's advocate as a training exercise). So far, Creationists of all educational backgrounds have provided better arguments, whereas Evolutionists typically appeal to authority. I feel just as confident in saying Creationism is the true origin of the heavens, the earth and all that is in them, as I feel about claiming a basilisk lizard is a reptile and not an amphibian.
An unfortunate side effect of being human is being fallible. Even experts make mistakes, and of course they are even capable of lying. This is why appeal to authority (argumentum ad verecundiam) is universally recognised as a fallacy. But there is one authority upon which you can safely rely. That authority is the Lord God of Israel, a God above reproach and completely lacking in sin. His word is pure and perfect, and it tells us a truth that cannot be scientifically tested: God loves you. So great is God's love for you that in spite of your sin, the evil within yourself for which God must demand payment, He is willing to pay the price for you with the blood of His own Son. Through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the confession of His Lordship, you can be forgiven for your sin, and upon your death, you will be reconciled to God, and live with Him for eternity in His Kingdom.