Can We Rightly Discern The Truth When We Hear It?

Today’s query is, can we really discern the truth when we hear it? Or can we only discern the truth that fits in with our current pool of understanding and experiences? We went to Tea/Supper, with a close family member the other night and were again reminded that she had actually gone to the same High school as my wife for one year during their school days. Also I found out that although they hung around together through a mutual friend, she did not particularly like my wife then, because she found her to be a terrible little liar. In something like her own words she said, “What a liar. How could anyone possibly have 14 brothers and sisters? It can’t possibly be true, and the funny names that she calls them too! Maybe if they had been proper English names, I might have believed her.”
Little was she to know then, that in a few short years, she was to meet and marry one of these brothers, and the one with the weirdest sounding name (To Aussie/English ears) too!
Yes, even though there was a family near us with eleven Kids*, (that we went to State {Primary} School with), fifteen Kids in the one family with non-familiar names was just too much for a twelve year old to believe, so therefore the other person must be a liar.
Well enough of her here and what about you? Yes how do you honestly act when you first hear something outside of your normal experience parameters? Do you automatically dismiss it as untrue? Do you also dismiss the bearer of that information as a liar? Or do you accept it Holus Bolus, without checking, either? Both responses are equally wrong and hurtful often, even if not outright harmful, to all concerned.
So when you hear something that doesn’t fit into your current level of understanding or experience, check it out and find out what it all really is about. Today, and especially for those with access to the Web, it is so much easier to do just that when you come across something that sounds weird, like I did recently when I came across the phrase/concept of Manga. I had no idea what it was or whether it was just a simply mistake and they actually meant a Mango, so I checked it out. But I will save that for tomorrow now.
In the meantime, please do not be too quick to either dismiss, or too quickly accept all that you hear, but where you have doubts, check them out. And check them out as soon as possible too, so that if you are wrong, you can correct yourself, before making a complete fool of yourself by passing around incorrect information. Will you do that now? I hope so!
* Although she states that she only knew of the 7 or 8 younger ones then, this again warns of the danger of basing an argument or view only on partial knowledge, even if only young at the time.