Fiction Default Status

Question: Should a work's default state be considered fiction until there is a consensus regarding the empirical truth or such a work?

My definition of fiction is as follows: A work whose central plot or interwoven plots are empirically untrue - events that have never occurred.

One fictional event, given that it does not adversely effect the central plot, then, is excusable and does not necessarily make a work fiction. Telling a completely accurate story of George Washington but including a story where he cuts down a cherry tree and announces that he cannot tell a lie, does not make the entire story fiction.

I do think that a work should be considered fictional unless there is a consensus as to it's empirical truth, this would essentially help to prevent works that some people recognize as non-fiction, such as the bible, from being considered such. Whether or not the author wrote a masterful story of unlikely events doesn't matter. If the plot is untrue regardless of how much the author believes otherwise, a work should be considered fiction until others agree that it's non-fiction.