What is a Fact?

What is a fact? A fact is an "idea which is considered o be wholly and absolutely true."  Through out our lives we are given facts to learn.  As children we are taught 1+1=2 and that we should not question it.  Most would agree this is an indisputable FACT.   But why is this a fact, because a large consensus of people agree this is true.  But what if you approached someone who knew nothing about our number system and showed them two apples and asked them how many there were, would they still say two?  Does this mean they are wrong?  Both parties obviously recognize the number of apples but quantify them differently.  We are also faced with another dilemma when understanding facts, exceptions.  An exception is something excluded from a general statement or does not follow a rule.  If this is the case how can such a rule or fact still be true? Within the computer science world, an exception causes a program to branch to a different "routine," a different part of the program.  Such a change indicates an error.  In the daily program of our everyday lives, are exceptions errors in our daily routines?  Facts are guide lines for our everyday life but do not define us.  What might be true for one person may not be true for another.  Although an exception indicates an error to the monotonous, lifeless computer, such an exception, a distinction in thought amongst humans, is not.

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." -Albert Einstein