True science tries to obtain the truth through observation and vigorous verification. Facts like 'The World is Flat", a belief held in the middle ages, was falsified by scientific observation.
When folks tell me, such and such is a scientific "fact", I point out that it is a currently held belief bearing up under observation and verification so far. And that that so called 'fact' may or may not hold up in the future.
The idea that intelligent people in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat is false. Maybe some illiterate peasants did, but not anyone with any schooling. The fact that the Earth was a sphere was known to the ancients.