The Evidence
Scientific theories that advance knowledge demand evidence. Evidence is the relevant information that is presented in theory. Evidence is publicly verifiable, reproducible, and references facts and observations to inform scientists (and convince others) which theories are probably true. There are various measures, philosophical approaches, and tests to convey on the likelihood or degree of support that the evidence conveys about a particular inference. Evidence is relevant to an inference if it impinges on the conclusion. It is rational and logical to believe in or accept a conclusion if all available relevant evidence is considered in and supported by the theory. Theories are answerable to the evidence. Evidence comes in many forms, stems from diverse methods, and is itself also related to inference and theories. Moreover, "the connection between theory and evidence in all of modern science is indirect, relying on many layers of intermediary theories and auxiliary hypotheses." In this regard, there is a great wealth of evidence supporting evolutionary theory, including formal tests of the evidence pointing to conclusions that are based on the common ancestry of life.
Read more about this topic: Evolution As Fact And Theory
Famous quotes containing the word evidence:
“I don’t know what it is about fecundity that so appalls. I suppose it is the teeming evidence that birth and growth, which we value, are ubiquitous and blind, that life itself is so astonishingly cheap, that nature is as careless as it is bountiful, and that with extravagance goes a crushing waste that will one day include our own cheap lives.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“No further evidence is needed to show that “mental illness” is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)