I don't trust "the science". I use the model that makes the best sense at the time. The scientific method can be applied to any process. Yet that doesn't mean every hypothesis is as far along the path as another.
Part of the problem is we don't publish and share failures. Yet failures are just as important to the process as successes.
We need to know what things were tried, and failed. If we do not then other people will simply try them or a slight variation of the same thing without realizing it has already been attempted.
We must be informed. We must challenge when we have questions. We must not shoot the person who asks questions we do not like. We can and should certainly answer them with a rational and thought out response. We certainly must analyze our own time and unfortunately we may not have the TIME to respond to every challenge. We weigh our time and respond as we can.
However, we should not ever view our lack of sufficient time as justification to shut someone down because we don't have time to answer them. We must not pass them off as a fool, a conspiracy theorist, a nut job, or a denier just because it is inconvenient for us to take the time to explain at that moment.
We also must always consider that we can be wrong. That is an opportunity, not a bad thing. Being wrong is not a bad thing unless we fail to learn from it and are wrong about the same thing over and over again.