The Trouble With Facts

 Facts are good things.  The knowledge of at least a few basic facts is necessary to our daily lives.

The trouble with facts is that (in fact) what we often call facts are statements that are clearly and demonstrably untrue.  These are the things that “Everybody knows” – maxims that have worked to some extent for ages - so we are unwilling to let them go.

For example, take this sentence -  The Sun and the Moon rise in the East and set in the West. 

People have known that since the beginning of time. Phoenicians explored the oceans with little more information than that.  But - it just isn’t true and we know it!  Still we continue to say it despite the fact that, based upon knowledge that clearly contradicts this adage, we sent astronauts to the Moon 45 years – over two generations – ago.

The sentence might be valid enough if we inserted appear to before rise, but the truth is that we orbit the Sun and the Moon orbits us.  The Earth is not flat and the statement is simply not valid.  It misses being true by over 93 million miles!

Even the whole East/West thing is misleading.  Looking out my back door at this time of year, the Moon rises almost 30 degrees North of where the rising Sun clears the horizon.  Using either the Sun or the Moon as my point of reference and heading West, I might be able to find the Pacific Ocean, but closer to home, a day’s walk heading West based on the Sun would take me to New Caney, while using the Moon would find me several miles  to the South at Porter or possibly Kingwood.

Questioning everything could lead to a cynical and unhappy existence, but maybe it’s necessary.  Facts that we accept without evaluation have the potential to lead us astray.