Madam Curie was able to extract a very small but real sample of pure uranium ore from a large mountainous pile of pitchblende.
Rumor is the pitchblende of truth.
All discoveries, events, inventions, etc. reach our awareness via one form of rumor or another. Some rumors are more difficult to confirm than others. But should we discount them because they are incredible to believe?
Case in point. The rumors reaching Americans of the atrocities taking place in Europe during WWII prior to America entering into the war.
This is a good case for analyzing the inherent nature of rumor. Often the rumor is not as embellished as we thought it to be. Often the rumor is much more mild than even the reality.
My point? That rumor is like a rather large pile of extraneous, superfluous stuff…not wholly or exactly the truth we are seeking at all. But to throw out the dirt? This would be to throw out the truth with the dirt! We must take it, instead, and heat it, beat it, put it in the centrifuge…heat it, beat it, put it in the centrifuge again, until finally a small sample of pure truth emerges.
It would be nice if truth existed in its natural form separate and pure from all the other elements, but as it is, truth is mixed in there pretty substantially with all the dirt, lies, and hubbub inherent in all story.