Understanding Misbelief/Facts Are Stubborn

Galileo vs. the Church

History offers powerful examples of facts prevailing over misinformation, propaganda, or dogmatic resistance. A classic case is Galileo Galilei’s conflict with the Church in the early 17th century. Galileo’s telescopic observations (such as the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter) provided factual evidence for the Copernican view that the Earth orbits the Sun, challenging the Church’s official geocentric doctrine. These astronomical facts were extremely “stubborn” – they remained true even when authorities refused to accept them. In 1633, under threat from the Inquisition, Galileo was forced to recant his support for heliocentrism. In the short term, the institutional power of the Church silenced Galileo and prevailed in declaring heliocentrism false. Yet the facts themselves did not change. Over time, the truth of Galileo’s findings became undeniable. As one analysis notes, “In the short term, Galileo’s opponents prevailed, but in the long term it was Galileo’s understanding… that won out in the Church.”​

Indeed, within decades of Galileo’s trial, more and more scientists accepted the evidence for a Sun-centered solar system, and centuries later the Church formally acknowledged Galileo’s correctness. This episode demonstrates that even when factual truth is suppressed or punished, it continues to exist and eventually resurfaces. The stubborn facts of planetary motion outlasted the temporary triumph of dogma.

Exposing Historical Fabrications

Another historical example of truth’s persistence is the exposure of deliberate historical fabrications. Powerful groups have often propagated false documents or narratives for gain, but genuine evidence eventually comes to light. Consider the Donation of Constantine, a document used throughout the Middle Ages to justify the Pope’s temporal authority. This document purported to be a 4th-century decree by Emperor Constantine granting vast powers to the papacy – an immensely convenient “fact” for the medieval Church. For centuries, it was accepted as authentic. However, in the 15th century, humanist scholar Lorenzo Valla applied critical analysis to the Donation. Through careful linguistic and historical scrutiny, Valla demonstrated that the document was a forgery – its Latin phrasing and references were clearly anachronistic and impossible for the era of Constantine​.^[4]

In other words, the factual evidence (such as the use of terms that did not exist in the 4th century) stubbornly contradicted the Church’s narrative. Valla’s proof, initially controversial, could not be refuted on logical grounds and ultimately had to be accepted: the Donation of Constantine was false. History records that this revelation “was so convincing that it still stands today, and the illegitimacy of the Donation… is generally conceded.”​^[5]

Here, facts in the form of textual evidence prevailed over a long-standing lie. Similarly, other historical falsehoods – from forged memoirs and fabricated relics to propaganda myths – have eventually been unmasked by determined factual investigation. The exposure of such fabrications underscores that facts have a way of emerging, even after long periods of obscurity. Falsehood can win belief for a time, but it cannot alter what truly happened; eventually, evidence surfaces to set the record straight.

The Civil Rights Movement and Truth

In more recent history, the American civil rights movement provides an example of activists leveraging stubborn facts to overcome ideology and drive social change. In the 1950s and 1960s, segregationists in the American South promoted a false narrative that the racial status quo was just and orderly. The reality, however, was one of brutal injustice – a truth the civil rights movement brought to light. Activists strategically documented instances of racial violence and discrimination, forcing the nation to confront factual injustice. Photographs and news footage showed peaceful protesters being attacked by police dogs, fire hoses, and mobs. These raw facts, transmitted by the media, cut through decades of propaganda about “separate but equal.” As one historical account notes, “Images of activists being ejected from segregated lunch counters and brutally attacked by police highlighted the cruelties of the South’s racial system”​.^[6]

Such coverage provided irrefutable evidence of oppression. The widespread viewing of these facts on television and in print galvanized public opinion. It became harder and harder for opponents of civil rights to deny what was plainly visible – for example, the beating of marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, or the glaring disparities in education and voting rights. Civil rights leaders deliberately grounded their arguments in factual data and occurrences. In speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often pointed to specific injustices (e.g. the number of Black people denied the vote, or the incidents of racial terror) to make the moral urgency concrete. This reliance on truth paid off. By showing Americans the facts of segregation’s cruelty, the movement eroded resistance and built support for landmark changes like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. As King exclaimed in 1965, “How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever… How long? Not long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

His words captured the core idea that reality cannot be suppressed indefinitely. The civil rights movement proved that spotlighting stubborn facts – the undeniable evidence of injustice – was a powerful strategy to defeat entrenched falsehoods and awaken the conscience of a nation.

Evolution and the Fossil Fact

Science, by its nature, tests ideas against empirical facts and provides many examples of controversial truths ultimately winning out. One such case is the theory of evolution by natural selection. When Charles Darwin introduced his theory in 1859, it met fierce resistance from many religious leaders and even some scientists. The idea that all species (including humans) evolved over long periods of time contradicted literal interpretations of scripture and traditional beliefs about the fixed order of life. Early on, Darwin’s factual evidence – from finch beaks to the fossil record – was dismissed by skeptics who were unwilling to abandon established doctrine. Yet as decades passed, the sheer weight of evidence in favor of evolution became impossible to ignore. Biologists around the world observed the same patterns Darwin described, from comparative anatomy to embryology. Fossil discoveries consistently revealed transitional forms linking ancient and modern species. Genetics, unknown in Darwin’s day, later confirmed and explained the mechanism of inheritance and variation. We see, therefore, a steady triumph of factual reality over doubt. By the late 19th century, most of the scientific community had accepted that evolution explained the diversity of life,^[7] even though some details (like the precise mechanisms) were still debated. According to a Pew Research historical analysis, “opposition to much of Darwin’s thinking among the scientific communities… largely collapsed in the decades following the publication of On the Origin of Species*​^[8]

In other words, scientists who initially balked at Darwin’s claims were eventually convinced by the accumulating facts. Organized religious opposition to evolution persisted longer, and indeed even today a minority refuse to accept it. But that does not change the fact that evolution is supported by overwhelming evidence and is regarded as fundamental truth in biology. Modern biologists consider evolution “a fact – as well-established as the Earth’s revolution around the Sun”.​^[9]

The persistence of this scientific truth, despite early skepticism and ongoing denial in some quarters, illustrates how facts remain stubborn. The fossil record, genetic data, and observable instances of natural selection are not swayed by ideology – they continue to point to the same conclusion. Over time, the truth of evolution has reasserted itself so strongly that 98% of scientists now accept it as the correct explanation for life’s diversity​.

Thus, in the contest between empirical fact and belief, the facts about evolution endured and prevailed.

Climate Change

Another contemporary example of a fact facing resistance is global climate change. For decades, climate scientists have amassed evidence that Earth’s average temperature is rising and that human activities – especially the burning of fossil fuels – are the primary cause. This conclusion is backed by a vast array of stubborn facts: instrumental temperature records showing warming, retreating glaciers and polar ice, rising sea levels, and measured increases in greenhouse gas concentrations. Despite the evidence, there has been significant resistance to the idea of human-caused climate change, often driven by economic interests or political ideology. In the late 20th century and early 21st, climate change “deniers” sought to cast doubt on the data and conclusions, at times asserting that the warming was a hoax or merely natural fluctuation. For a while, these voices created public confusion about the facts. However, the persistence of factual reality has steadily cut through the fog of denial. Year after year, the planet has broken high-temperature records, and scientific observations have continued to reinforce the same story. Virtually every national science academy and relevant scientific organization in the world has affirmed the reality of anthropogenic climate change. NASA succinctly summarizes that “multiple studies published in peer-reviewed journals show that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities”, and that most leading scientific organizations worldwide endorse this position​.^[10]

The scientific consensus is now around 97% that humans are driving global warming​^[10]– an extraordinary agreement reflecting the strength of the evidence. Notably, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated it is “unequivocal” that the climate is warming and that human influence is the dominant cause​.^[11]

These terms underline how stubborn the facts have become: there is no reasonable doubt left about the trend or its cause. While political debates still continue in some arenas, the factual truth of climate change stands firm. We see governments, businesses, and communities increasingly compelled to act on those facts (through emissions reductions or adaptation efforts) because pretending the problem doesn’t exist is no longer tenable. Like other cases of stubborn truth, the facts about climate change have outlived the campaigns to discredit them. Reality – in the form of melting ice, extreme weather, and measurable warming – persists regardless of denial, eventually forcing acknowledgement.

Germ Theory of Disease

Scientific history also shows how empirical evidence can overturn long-held misconceptions. Consider the rise of the germ theory of disease in the 19th century. Before germ theory, the dominant belief was the miasma theory – the notion that diseases spread through “bad air” or poisonous vapors from decaying matter. This was the established medical wisdom for centuries, and many authorities clung to it. However, researchers like Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch began to produce factual evidence that specific microorganisms (bacteria, viruses) caused specific diseases. Their experiments – demonstrating how bacteria could sour wine or cause anthrax in animals – provided concrete, reproducible facts that contradicted the miasma model. Yet, as with other paradigm shifts, there was initial resistance. Some physicians refused to believe invisible microbes could be responsible for illnesses like cholera or puerperal fever, especially when they themselves might be implicated in spreading germs. A famous example is Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor in the 1840s who showed through meticulous data that hand-washing in obstetric clinics dramatically cut death rates from childbed fever. Semmelweis had essentially discovered an application of germ theory (before germs were understood): he posited that some “cadaverous particles” carried on unwashed hands were infecting mothers. Despite his strong empirical evidence, Semmelweis’s findings were rejected by many peers who took offense at the implication that doctors’ hands were unclean. One retrospective notes that Semmelweis “faced significant resistance and disbelief” from the medical establishment even though he had data to support his claims​.^[12]

He died without seeing his ideas vindicated. However, the truth he observed did not vanish. In the ensuing decades, Pasteur’s experiments on fermentation and vaccination, along with Robert Koch’s identification of the bacteria behind diseases like tuberculosis and cholera, provided undeniable proof of germ theory. By 1880, the miasma theory had been abandoned by scientists and physicians, fully replaced by germ theory – the understanding that “specific germs, not miasma, caused specific diseases.”

What had been a contested claim became a foundational fact of medicine. The victory of germ theory over miasma thinking again highlights how stubborn facts can be. Once the evidence for germs reached critical mass (e.g. bacteria visible under microscopes, successful vaccines based on germ principles), no amount of preference for the old explanation could hold back the new truth. Medical practice transformed – sterilization, antiseptics, and public health measures targeting microbes became standard. Today, the germ theory of disease is so deeply established that it is taken for granted; it withstood early skepticism and revolutionized our world. In hindsight, the initial resistance appears futile – reality was what it was, and eventually everyone had to align with the facts.