2.

To what extent do you agree with the claim that “there’s a world of
difference between truth and facts” (Maya Angelou)?

Candidate Number: jws552

Word Count: 1150

Facts and truths are concepts commonly misinterpreted as being the same, but this

could not be further away from reality. First of all, we must understand what the

difference between a fact and the truth is in terms of their respective definitions. We

can already see their disparity in the words that precede them: a fact and the truth.

Facts consist of verifiable and undeniable statements that can be proven, while the truth

is based on someone’s personal belief or a consensus of something being true, without

necessarily requiring facts.1 For example, “fire is hot” is a fact, as it can be proven by

anyone through their senses, while “God exists” is the truth for some people, but there

is no empirical data that demonstrates its existence, therefore for some it is not.

To approach the topic, I will begin talking about history, as I endeavour to conclude if

historical facts do exist and to what extent can we be certain about them being true. A

clear example to start with is the Battle of Hastings. I still remember the History class in

year 8 where my teacher presented me with this important historical event on 14

October 1066 where the Norman-French army defeated the English. I can also recall

raising my hand and asking my teacher “how do we know that it took place on that exact

date and how can we know how many people died and even the development of the

battle itself and the strategies used?”. One of my classmates then stated

contemptuously “because it’s in the book”. The teacher gave me a much more detailed

answer, explaining how there are historical records of people who experienced those

events who state how the battle developed exactly, and we can be sure of its existence

because of the great and profound consequences it had on history. He did agree that

1
Unknown (2022, January 29). Difference between fact and truth (with table). Ask Any Difference.
Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-fact-and-truth/
most of the time historians do not know fully well what happened, even if they do have

facts about the past, which might be a date, a photo, or a statistic.

The conflict arises when we try to give them meaning or interpret them from our present

perspective, as, in the end, history is about humans and humans are complex. We can

merely attempt to deduce facts from them to try and form the most probable and

accurate “truth” about what happened. Different people will have their truths coming

out from the same facts and events depending on their own experience and their

closeness to the event itself. As an example, we have the Vietnam War, where the

generally accepted truth is that Vietnam was a disaster for the US and an unnecessary

conflict based on factual evidence (numbers killed, objectives not met…) but there may

well be veterans who feel proud of what they did in Vietnam and having fought against

communism. It is a fact that 58, 281 American soldiers were killed2 because there are

testimonies for each death and a family that can testify it, but the truth of them being

necessary or unnecessary is left for personal interpretation.

Similarly, we can argue that in the natural sciences we have facts supporting truths.

Sometimes both become inseparable, such as the law of gravity, which proven

undeniably, becomes both a fact and the only possible truth. Therefore, in examples like

this, the definition of truth and fact are virtually inseparable for the sciences.

Nevertheless, in cases like the Theory of Evolution, firstly postulated by Charles Darwin,

facts that may support this theory can equally be used to support creationism (the belief

that God created everything). For example, in the Theory of Evolution Darwin states that

2
HOMA (2021, November 5). How many US soldiers died in the Vietnam War? historyofmyamerica.com.
Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://historyofmyamerica.com/how-many-us-soldiers-died-vietnam-
war/
all living organisms come from one single initial organism, but this first living organism

is unknown and is commonly known as the missing link3. Some creationists take this

missing link and interpret it as God, using it as proof that what created all living

organisms was God himself. Due to the absence of evidence, neither theory can be

disproved. Therefore, two truths (God and evolution) come from the same facts, which

makes the seek for the truth by scientists and investigators even more challenging.

This ambiguity of certain scientific facts and the way in which theories are constantly

being disproved and renewed has a negative effect on people, creating a distrust

towards the scientific community. A clear example of the constant renewal of science is

the atomic model, one of the most fundamental and essential theories, as it provides an

explanation to what are the building blocks of all matter. This theory has changed up to

4 times4, and with every change, most physics had to shift drastically its direction and

some theories were thrown away and new ones were created.

This distrust doesn’t make facts less factual, as by definition they are simply undeniable,

but due to the possibility of something that was seen as a fact being proved wrong and

a new fact arising from this, science becomes a doubtful source of facts. With this, I do

not mean that scientific facts don’t exist, as there are cases in which they are absolutely

undeniable, but due to our limited knowledge of the universe and its functioning,

sometimes something that was commonly taken as a fact results to not be as such. It is

here that the line between facts and truth becomes blurrier because not even

3
Melina, R. (2010, April 12). What's the missing link? LiveScience. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from
https://www.livescience.com/32530-what-is-the-missing-link.html
4
Education, I. L. (2019, January 18). A timeline of atomic models. Medium. Retrieved March 7, 2022,
from https://medium.com/@Intlink.edu/a-timeline-of-atomic-models-cb2607b1da85
statements that we take as factual are saved from being proved wrong and we must be

careful of what we take as a fact.

In conclusion, I do agree with the statement that facts are extremely different from the

truth. All facts are true, but not all truths are facts. For example, in history, although

facts can be taken from the past through arduous investigation, the truth might be

extremely difficult to discover on many occasions because other facts impossible to

recover may be a crucial element of knowing what really happened, and even if we do

know what happened we might interpret it on different ways based on our own

perspective, which creates various truths about the same facts. In a similar manner, in

natural sciences, facts are used to find different theories (truths), but due to the

constant renewal of these, even facts can be disproved as wrong with further

investigation and advancements. Therefore, historical and scientific facts exist, but this

can be used to support different perspectives and truths, and some truths that we

wrongly take as facts can even be proved as unfactual with the pass of time. This is the

reason why facts can obscure the truth, because in the search for the truth some facts

can be misused or misinterpreted and some are confused as facts when in reality they

are not, leading to an erroneous conclusion about the truth and, therefore, a false truth.
 Bibliography

Ask Any Difference (2022, January 29). Difference between fact and truth (with table).

Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-fact-

and-truth/

H. O. M. A. (2021, November 5). How many US soldiers died in the Vietnam War?

Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://historyofmyamerica.com/how-many-us-soldiers-

died-vietnam-war/

Melina, R. (2010, April 12). What's the missing link? LiveScience. Retrieved March 7,

2022, from https://www.livescience.com/32530-what-is-the-missing-link.html

Education, I. L. (2019, January 18). A timeline of atomic models. Medium. Retrieved

March 7, 2022, from https://medium.com/@Intlink.edu/a-timeline-of-atomic-models-

cb2607b1da85