Can facts be dis-proven?

Question

or are they strictly true statements?

Answer 1

depends on what you mean by fact.

relatively speaking yes. facts can be true at the time of conception, as nothing else would be knowen to the viewer, though disproven later.

for example it was a fact that apes where our closest related species, until advances in technology showed that chimps where.

Answer 2

Could be dis-proven...

Answer 3

there are no facts. there are no statements that can be eternally true only things that are highly probable.

Answer 4

Depends on your definition of fact. It was a fact in the 12th century that the earth was flat. It is considered a fact now that it is round. It is also considered fact that the Grand Canyon is over 2 billion years old - however that doesnt mean everyone believes that.

Answer 5

There are facts which can be proved. There are facts which cannot be proved by reason or experiment.

Example where facts can be proved. One can prove a tree to be an apple tree by tasting the fruit. One can prove lemon juice by tasting it.

Examples where facts cannot be proved. A person has lost his father. If one questions that person to prove his father (who is no more), he cannot.

One can show his hand, his leg,  his head, etc. but if one is asked to show his mind, his feelings or his intelligence, it is not possible. At the same time nobody can deny the existence of mind, feelings or intelligence.

I am not able to explain more clearly than this.

Answer 6

A fact that can be disproved is not factual, now is it?

Answer 7

Just look throughout history,  people once thought the earth was flat, and that man would never fly, or women would never be given the right to vote because they were deemed to emotional to make rational decisions.

History, technology and human nature have disproved those facts, haven't they?  

Answer 8

Well, facts do change, but being dis-proven is illogical, because at one point, they were true, meaning they are still facts.

Answer 9

Sometimes.  We conclude on the basis of evidence that something is a fact, and occasionally new evidence shows up that shows that it isn't.

Answer 10

Some people here are confusing facts with assumptions.  Facts are facts.  People sometimes interpret the world around them in fallacious ways, but that doesn't invalidate what is actually the truth.

Answer 11

The book of Science is not complete and never will be.