Abduction - Part V (Final)

I'll make this ultra-brief.

1) Believe what you can observe. Do not deny the evidence of your own senses. It's a bad evolutionary strategy, and also makes you vulnerable to deception. And it has negative consequences for your fellow human beings.

2) If you are told something that contradicts the evidence of your senses, then posit that you have been told a falsehood. Look for an explanation (an antecedent) which would explain why you are being told this particular falsehood. Lawyers and police detectives like to ask the question, "cui bono?" (Who benefits from your believing this deception? And how do they benefit?) That's one good approach. Or if there isn't a specific intent to deceive, then why is the source of this misinformation conveying it to you. Does the source believe it? Why? Rationalization of something it's personally or institutionally advantageous to believe? Psychological comfort?

3) Unless you are genuinely schizophrenic, or in some other way pathologically delusional, the evidence of your senses is your best, most direct guide to the reality around you. If you're not going to believe in the reality of what you can see, then why on earth would you believe in the second-order reality represented to you by someone else?