"Much of the information that people assume is "factual" actually turns out to be inaccurate. Thus, any piece referred to as a 'fact' should be mistrusted since it may well be proven false in the future."
Hindu philosophy defines truth as something that was, is and will be. This is the definition that people associate in general with "facts" they collect from science journals, newspapers, television etc. The people who think they know it all are in for a rude shock the day they decide to open their eyes a little more. The truth is that there are no static and absolute facts.
People talk about religious superstitions. They are the well known ones. Another kind of superstition has taken root of late : scientific superstition. If you recite something said by a scientist, the chances are that the listener will accept it as it is. The truth of the statement will seldom, if ever, be questioned. Any keen science student can tell you that modern science is highly applicative and totally result oriented. Constant experimentation, documentation, visualization, study and accidents by some of the greatest minds has given science its present face. There is only one thing : we do not really know how it happens. We just know it does and we know how to do it. Theories are put forward to answer many questions that have teased the human mind for eons. Theories and hypotheses come and go. Facts of one era become good but incompetent theories for the next. Be it evolution from Bohr's model of the atom to Schrodinger Wave Equations or Newton's classical mechanics to Einstein's relativity, there is nothing called fact. There is only evolution.
Why only science? There is no branch of studies in which rules/ facts/ theories/ hypotheses have remained invariably same. The pattern has been the same. Since the natural tendency of human beings is to progress, it is but expected that a statement that is a fact today may well be proven false in the future. Assuming any statement to be a fact is an unscientific attitude. One should always take a statement as an argument, an intelligent one if it has weight. We may not have any answers against it and it may even feel correct. Nevertheless the truth remains that it may not be correct.
If this sounds like a perfect recipe to become a skeptic, it cannot be helped. This is how it is going to be for anyone who will not settle for anything but the truth.
Nobody said anything about definitely finding it!
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