[ExI] Belief in maths

[Robert Picone]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 1:00 AM, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:

> darren shawn greer <dgreer_68 at hotmail.com> opined:
> I strongly disagree.
>
> The truth of the statement "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
> is not a matter of opinion.  It's a logical fact.  If a person decides it's
> not true, they're discarding logic altogether, and simply can't be argued
> with.
>
> Ben Zaiboc
>
>
>
It isn't logical fact.  Absence of evidence is not a proof of absence, but
it most certainly can be evidence of absence.

If I sue my landlord claiming my landlord kept a grizzly bear chained in my
basement, putting me in danger and causing me great distress and mental
anguish, but I can provide no evidence myself, and all other tenants claim
they had seen no evidence of the existance of such a bear, my absence of
evidence would weigh in as evidence against the case I am making.  No sane
or logical judge would ever conclude that my own evidence presented
(eyewitness testimony by a traumatized individual) was significant while the
defendant's absence of evidence was not, therefore I was owed damages
inflicted by this bear's obvious presence.

In many cases it is perfectly reasonable to presume that if something was
true, then the likelihood would've weighed heavily in favor of qualifying
evidence being discovered by one of many investigators.
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