Evidence
A claim is shown to be true or false with evidence, which is a fact or concept (or set of facts or concepts) that provides support (affirmation, confirmation, corroboration, proof, substantiation, verification) for the truth or falsity of a claim.
The most common way that evidence is utilized is in a court of law where the prosecution has to provide proof for the truth of the claim, “The defendant is guilty of the crime” for example. However, you have probably heard someone make a claim and someone else ask, “What’s the evidence for that claim?” or “Where’s the proof for that claim?” Evidence comes in a number of forms:Direct sense evidence of spatiotemporal entities using sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.
For example, you go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower for yourself, and this gives support for the truth of the claim, “The Eiffel Tower exists in Paris, France.”
Sense evidence of spatiotemporal entities that is indirect through a device, machine, or instrument that is reliably calibrated, such as a magnifying glass, periscope, camera, video recorder, binoculars, microscope, telescope, or meter.
For example, you’ve never been to France, and you see pictures and videos of the Eiffel Tower, and this gives support for the truth of the claim, “The Eiffel Tower exists in Paris, France.”
The testimony of others whom we trust.
For example, you’ve never been to France, but your parents go to France and tell you that they saw the Eiffel Tower, and you believe them. Once again, this gives support for the truth of the claim, “The Eiffel Tower exists in Paris, France.”
The testimony of experts in some area, domain, field, or discipline.
For example, the engineer of the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel, tells other engineers that the tower can support an elevator system to bring people to the top, and the elevator engineers begin construction on the elevator because they take Gustave’s testimony to be the support for the truth of the claim, “The Eiffel Tower can support an elevator system.”
Authoritative explanations as one finds in the sciences.
For example, researchers since Isaac Newton have shown that gravity is at work in the universe, and this is what accounts for why the Eiffel Tower (and any other dense physical object) does not simply float away into Earth’s atmosphere.
Logical or mathematical entailment.
For example, if it’s true that the Eiffel Tower is located in Paris, and it’s true that Paris is located in France, then by a logical property of the “located in” relationship known as transitivity, these two truths entail that (or we can conclude with absolute certainty that) it’s true that the Eiffel Tower is located in France.
Arguments can act as evidence, too.
For example, the reductio ad absurdum (reduction to absurdity) argument has been used for thousands of years to show that someone’s claim is false. One form of the argument looks like this:
(1) If your claim X is true, then this absurdity, contradiction, or craziness Y results.
(2) But, we cannot accept this absurdity, contradiction, or craziness Y.
(3) Therefore, your claim X is not true (it’s false).
We can put flesh on the argument using this example:
(1) If it’s true that Noah fit two of every species of living thing on the ark, then the ark would need to have been the size of Australia, which is absurd (and not communicated in the Bible anyway; it was about 520 feet long by 86 feet wide by 52 feet high).
(2) We cannot accept that Noah built an ark the size of Australia.
(3) Therefore, it’s false that Noah fit two of every species of living thing on the ark.
There are other forms of evidence, but this should suffice for now. Referring back to our lettered list of true (A)-(D) and false (E)-(H) claims, we can note that:
(A) is true because of direct sense evidence - we can see that spiders are orange.
(B) is true because of expert testimony - the data gathered from doctors and researchers show that most children are born with two hands.
(C) is true in terms of expert testimony through historical records and accounts.
(D) is true because of direct sense evidence (we can see the craters with the naked eye) as well as sense evidence that is indirect through a telescope (ever since Galileo did it in the early 1600s).
(E) is false because of direct sense evidence - we can see that the sun is not cube-shaped. (E) is also false because of the well- established law of gravity, part of which means that celestial bodies such as stars are uniformly “pulled” in toward their center of mass as they rotate, creating a sphere-shaped (and not a cubeshaped) object.
(F) is false because of sense evidence that is indirect through a microscope - there are only organelles (nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, etc.) inside an animal cell.
(G) is false in terms of expert testimony through historical records and accounts - Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace.
(H) is false because of many well-established laws of physics as well as laws of math and logic. Through the principle of non-contradiction in logic, it can’t be true that “Frank is standing” and “Frank is not standing (assumed when he’s sitting)” at the same time and in the same respect.
As critically thinking, rational beings, we want to make sure that any claim we put forward - or anyone puts forward - is in fact true by virtue of the evidence for it. You will often hear questions like, “Where’s the proof for what you’re saying?” or “Give me an example of what you’re talking about?” and these are other ways of saying, “What is the evidence that supports the truth of your claim?”
Certain claims are easier to support with evidence than others. In general, we think that direct sense evidence resulting from sober, sane people provides a decent support for claims made about the spatiotemporal world. If several folks are on a street corner when a car chase zooms by them and they all claim, “The vehicle being chased by police was a red SUV,” then the officer interviewing them thinks, “Well, it must be true that it’s a red SUV because the witnesses saw it.” (Of course, it’s possible to misperceive something or project something into existence that’s not really there - even groups of folks are known to have done this - so one must be careful when taking another’s “word” for something.)
So too, data are gathered from researchers about entities and relationships that are the focus of sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology, and those researchers make claims about the data which most everyone takes to be true.
When a respected astrophysicist says, “The sun is roughly 75% hydrogen and 25% helium,” or a world- renowned chemist says, “There are currently 118 different elements that comprise the Periodic Table,” or an Oxford University biologist says, “In African nations, malaria is transmitted to humans by the female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles,” we have no problem believing what they say is true.Conversely, certain claims are much harder to support with evidence. “Humans have souls that survive the death of the body,” “All events in the universe are determined to occur the way they do, including events caused by humans,” “There are several alternate universes,” and other like philosophical and theoretical claims require forms of evidence that go well beyond merely pointing at something in the spatiotemporal world. And some claims, like “I truly exist because I am aware of myself existing,” “I recall that I had eggs for breakfast this morning,” and “This object in my visual field appears green to me,” may have evidence that is only acceptable to that person - the person who is aware, or recalling, or perceiving - and no one else.