Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140425203121/@comment-24590102-20141121011524

[...]The fact is that multiple source, including the game loading screens, books and in-game characters, all say the Falmer are blind. [...] There is only one in-game book (by Uthrax), one in-game character and, dare I suggest, one load screen portraying what is, in Skyrim, a belief which lacks any factual support. Irrespective of the number of sources (popularity fallacy), an idea which lacks factual support is, by definitition, speculation or theory (i.e. assumption). To contrast, the idea that the Falmer are not blind, which is based on the observation of in-game facts, is an inference - being drawn directly from those facts and, thus, cannot be speculative or theoretical (i.e. assumed).

Inference is vastly more reliable than speculation, as shown by the history of science. Moreover, when it becomes necessary to exclude direct inference on the basis of non-empirical sources, the role of faith or belief is revealed. This raises the question of why such belief or faith is so important?