There may be more than one reality in play - look for them.
" ... rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions."
- Joe Keohane in How Facts Backfire 8/7/10 Dallas Morning NewsFactual realism
- based on reproducibly observable and inferred consistencies in the universe
- derived from methodological naturalism (or scientific naturalism)
Scientific facts - hypotheses supported by large bodies of evidence that lacks any falsifying observations
Practical realism- belief in empirically unsubstantiated claims to further a desired functional aim
- the "perceived fact" will be driven by the ideology
David Slone Wilson, Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002) gives further discussion (from an evolutionary point of view).