Ed, The most reliable way of discovery is 'the impartial observer', a term used in science, to describe the person gathering the data... not to 'prove a point' but to observe the nature of the item being studied, or observed, to reach an unbiased basis, from which to catalog the properties.....from there one can proceed further.
One place to completely AVOID in seeking the truth about just about anything, is politics!!!...(I just HAD to throw that in to underline the word 'impartial'!!).

GfS