Of course, by the nineteenth century, only the most dogmatically fundamentalist sects could still maintain faith in the immobility of the Earth. P eople do make mistakes. We are often slow to change our opinions. We must be forever seeking the truth and questioning our sources because of those two very human conditions. Facts v. Inferences W e defined facts as statements that can be verified.
Inferences are statements about the unknown based on the known.
As careful, analytical, critical readers and writers, we want to be certain that we distinguish fact from inference. This is often difficult because inferences are built on upon facts, so we sometimes treat them as facts themselves. Those are interpretations of the one fact. A nother example is a recent ABC television network's promotional ad. On an ironic twist of the usual claim, ABC's ad shows the viewers several families from around the world.