• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof?

joshua 1 9

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
May 11, 2015
17,420
3,593
Northern Ohio
✟314,607.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof? Can we quantify evidence; is something more evident than something else? What does it take to convince a scientist, a scientific community, and the general public of the correctness of a scientific result in the era of very complicated experiments, big data, and weak signals?
 

AV1611VET

SCIENCE CAN TAKE A HIKE
Site Supporter
Jun 18, 2006
3,856,213
52,662
Guam
✟5,154,754.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof?
I would say:

Consensus of evidence = fact.

Consensus of fact = proof.

Consensus of proof = consensus of evidence + consensus of fact.
 
Upvote 0

whois

rational
Mar 7, 2015
2,523
119
✟3,336.00
Faith
Non-Denom
What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof? Can we quantify evidence; is something more evident than something else? What does it take to convince a scientist, a scientific community, and the general public of the correctness of a scientific result in the era of very complicated experiments, big data, and weak signals?
okay, in my opinion:
facts are immutable, 1+1=2 is a fact.

evidence is some kind of description, you see a car on the other side of an intersection with a stop sign, there are skid marks going across the intersection. these skid marks are evidence that this car did not stop at the stop sign. be advised that this evidence is not proof.

proof would be some kind of connection between the evidence and the facts of the matter.
showing the intermediate steps in an math equation would be proof.
 
Upvote 0

AV1611VET

SCIENCE CAN TAKE A HIKE
Site Supporter
Jun 18, 2006
3,856,213
52,662
Guam
✟5,154,754.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
Then there's truth. All those other things r subject to change
Yes, indeed!

As they have many times, with such things as Thalidomide, L'Aquila, Phlogiston theory, Lamarckism, and many etc's.

And welcome to CF! :wave:
 
Upvote 0

AV1611VET

SCIENCE CAN TAKE A HIKE
Site Supporter
Jun 18, 2006
3,856,213
52,662
Guam
✟5,154,754.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
okay, in my opinion:
facts are immutable, 1+1=2 is a fact.
I think the OP was referring to science.

And as far as I know, arithmetic is not a science.
 
Upvote 0

juvenissun

... and God saw that it was good.
Apr 5, 2007
25,452
805
73
Chicago
✟138,626.00
Country
United States
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof? Can we quantify evidence; is something more evident than something else? What does it take to convince a scientist, a scientific community, and the general public of the correctness of a scientific result in the era of very complicated experiments, big data, and weak signals?

Evidence is usually not clear enough.
Fact is likely to mislead.
Any proof is destined to be a very narrow view of a big picture.

Without wisdom, none of the above would work.
 
Upvote 0

Loudmouth

Contributor
Aug 26, 2003
51,417
6,143
Visit site
✟98,025.00
Faith
Agnostic
What is the difference between evidence, fact, and proof?

Facts are verifiable statements about the world around us.

Evidence is a set of facts that are consistent with a claim.

Proof is an absolute or axiomatic statement that is usually part of an epistemology. The most common examples are geometric proofs in mathematics. It is also the measure of alcohol content.

Can we quantify evidence; is something more evident than something else?

The more independent facts we have to support a claim, the more well supported it is.

What does it take to convince a scientist, a scientific community, and the general public of the correctness of a scientific result in the era of very complicated experiments, big data, and weak signals?

For scientists and the scientific community, it takes multiple sources of independent evidence in order for a theory to be taken seriously. When seemingly unrelated facts all lead to the same conclusion, it is considered to be a strong conclusion. As to the public, they are often swayed more by emotion than facts, as these threads demonstrate.
 
Upvote 0

Loudmouth

Contributor
Aug 26, 2003
51,417
6,143
Visit site
✟98,025.00
Faith
Agnostic
There is no proof in science. Science is incapable of proving any theory right, even theoretically. Science may be able to prove theories wrong (theoretically), but whether it can do so as a practical matter remains in doubt.

Then stop using the products that science has produced
 
Upvote 0

Zosimus

Non-Christian non-evolution believer
Oct 3, 2013
1,656
33
Lima, Peru
✟24,500.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
Facts are verifiable statements about the world around us.
Can this statement be verified? If not, then do you agree that the statement is not a fact according to your own definition?

Evidence is a set of facts that are consistent with a claim.
So anything that disagrees with a claim is, by very definition, not evidence?
 
Upvote 0

Loudmouth

Contributor
Aug 26, 2003
51,417
6,143
Visit site
✟98,025.00
Faith
Agnostic
Can this statement be verified?

Doesn't need to, since the definition of fact is an axiom. Whether or not you use the scientific method is up to you. For the majority of the human race, it appears to be a reliable method. Apparently, you decide whether to accept or deny the scientific method based on what it finds.

So anything that disagrees with a claim is, by very definition, not evidence?

Correct.
 
Upvote 0

grasping the after wind

That's grasping after the wind
Jan 18, 2010
19,458
6,355
Clarence Center NY USA
✟245,147.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Lutheran
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
Upvote 0

Zosimus

Non-Christian non-evolution believer
Oct 3, 2013
1,656
33
Lima, Peru
✟24,500.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
Doesn't need to, since the definition of fact is an axiom. Whether or not you use the scientific method is up to you. For the majority of the human race, it appears to be a reliable method. Apparently, you decide whether to accept or deny the scientific method based on what it finds.
I see. So you feel that you require neither evidence nor justification. The simple statement of an axiom is sufficient.

Axiom: The Bible is unconditionally true.

Now perhaps some may question the part where the Bible seems to indicate that Pi = 3. However, according to your own definition, since this does not agree with the assertion in question, it is not evidence. Accordingly, there can be no evidence against the Bible.

Find the nearest Christian, get on your knees, and accept Jesus as your savior because this is the only logical conclusion to your chain of logic.
 
Upvote 0