The hallmark of truth is consistency

You can be sure that you are in the presence of an untruth if the information you are processing is contradictory.

When I say consistent, I mean in all dimensions.

The world exists in 4 dimensions.

No object can exist that is not consistent in all four dimensions.

If a brick has no thickness, it's not a brick; it's a card.

So you can be sure that the thing your opponent is about to hit you with will damage you or is just a bluff by checking the consistency of the brick in all dimensions. (Example copied from My Cousin Vinny. Sorry, I couldn't think of anything better to explain).

One of the most crucial dimensions is Time.

Just like you can check the truth of a brick by looking at its third dimension, you can check the truth of a phenomenon by looking at its 4th dimension.

That means if a phenomenon is true, it will stay true over Time.

A lot of success that physics has had over the years can be attributed to this consistency.

Laws of motion remain constant over Time. All the constants used in physics equations are consistent because they don't change over Time.

That's why we rely on them to make all the technological advances. Because we know they will not change over Time.

How do we know space exists? How do we know the sun, moon, and stars that we see all around us are there for real?

You will say some people have been there to the moon. But how do you know they are not lying?

You will say they have evidence. But how do you know the evidence is not fabricated?

You will say, They have answers to all the doubts that we threw at them. But how do you know these questions were not anticipated and addressed beforehand? After all, they either spent billions of dollars on the actual landing of the moon or on fabricating the evidence and filling all the holes.

But despite all the reservations, the consensus will be that the moon landings happened.

And why is that? Because the event has withstood the test of Time. They may have anticipated all the problems in the 1960s, but new decades brought new knowledge and technological advances. And that got further doubts. But still, all the doubts were handled reasonably well by the experts of these landings. That left us with almost nothing to doubt.

Since a single consistent theory about that event remained valid over Time, we can say it is true. We can never be 100% sure. But that is the closest we can ever come to truth.

The same is true about the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, the theory of evolution, genetics, and every damn event that has happened in our personal history, including our birth and the identity of our parents.

We know that we can never actually see the outside world. We can only perceive the image of the world that our mind is making through the data collected by our senses; we are reasonably sure about the truth of such a vast universe because the stories that we hear about it have remained consistent and thwarted all the attacks of doubts that Time has thrown at them.

But Time is more critical to the truth than that. It is not just about what we have discovered in the past but also about what we can potentially find.

A lot of creative solutions are driven by the myths that exist in cultures. People are inspired by stories of faith every day to find courage in their lives. They are driven to their actions by taking references from the old tales.

When Galileo observed the phases of Venus, he did not find them consistent with an earth-centric model of planetary motion. He then found it compatible with the sun-centric model, leading him to explore whether all the planets, including the Earth, rotate around the sun. A belief that was highly prevalent in his age.

The discovery of marine life skeletons at mountaintops was inconsistent with the current sea levels, leading to the invention of modern geology and plate tectonics theory. The consistency of evidence significantly shifted the truth as we know it.

Darwin challenged the theory of unique creation and species immutability when he encountered species variation during his tour of the Galapagos islands. He observed that the changes in the Earth's crust lead to a changing environment, which causes species to adapt, causing variations. This new view was consistent with the data he kept observing.

Newton did not find the theories of planetary motion of Aristotle and Ptolemy consistent with the new sun-centric model of the solar system. He then created his theories but did not find the mathematics consistent enough to explain these theories. That led to the invention of Calculus. Now, we use Calculus to find a consistency of every theory and technological advance possible.

The reliance on technology in mathematics also proves that a consistent structure is needed to create things that can hold over Time.

The consistency of theories applies to all aspects of human life. Courts rely on the consistency of evidence and testimonies to establish the truths of events.

Whenever we want to establish truth, we must look at the theory from all angles to verify the consistency in all dimensions. That includes giving it Time and seeing if it holds despite all opposition during the wait.

Observing contradictions means you are moving away from the truth.

Watching consistency means you are moving towards truth.

Give yourself a pat on the back!