yankel > If the message is correct , who cares how it got to you ?
yes, this is correct in many cases where it is possible to evaluate evidence directly.
as someone told me about Rambam, “he would accept the truth regardless of the source”.
May also depend on a person’s own knowledge and abilities.
Here we are discussing matters that are truly beyond my abilities, and probably beyond abilities of other posters. I can’t rely on Chachamim as their quotes here seem to be contradictory and most likely taken out of context. Thus, I can only (somewhat) trust based on poster’s reputation. So, that was my first basic question – do any of the posters have any external proof of their thinking abilities. If they did not invent a new light bulb or something, how can they be sure they can figure out such weighty topics? I would suggest – to those who did not yet – do something intellectually competitive that will indicate to them how good they are at thinking and even where their strong and weak spots are. Try SAT, chess, NYT crossword … IT is not bitul zman as knowing yourself will help you a lot in learning and working on middos.