ok my mistake (See how easy it is to admit mistakes)
Because you make things up, that is why I always say “quote anywhere where I did X”………….and I usually don’t get a reply
My purpose here in this forum is to learn, and share ideas, my specific purpose in this thread was to determine an objective and useful criteria that would allow us to determine what counts as evidence. ……….specifically when do testimonies count as evidence.
You are correct in this case my efforts where counterproductive, but I didn’t know that I was going to fail , my hypothesis is that internet atheist (as oppose to atheist scholars) tend to avoid a direct expiation on what evidence is, because they know deep inside that any coherent definition of evidence would result in the fact that there is at least some evidence in favor of views that go against their own view
see it is very easy to answer questions directly
you have received answers multiple times.
If you (plural) grant that at least sometimes testimonies are evidence…………..you could no longer avoid hard question by saying “ohhh those are just testimonies”…………. But rather you would be forced to interact with the argument and explain what is wrong with that particular testimony
If we get to a point where we agree on an objective metric to determine whether if a testimony is good evidence or not , then all I have to do provide an example of that testimony, and you would be forced to accept it as evidence.
So that is my hidden motive and my hidden agenda
But it is obvious that I failed, it is obvious that you (plural) would rather to keeo things vague and ambiguous so that you can always pull the “it´s not evidence because I say so card”
What I said is that scientific knowledge comes largely from testimonies……(what other people say)…not that scientific knowledge itself is testimony
Because
@TagliatelliMonster and many others have claimed that testimonies are never evidence. I am just correcting them
I simply used scientific papers as an extreme and obvious example of testimonies that we all count as evidence
I am defining “testimony ” as things that people say or report ………… this definition doesn’t exclude well supported and well documented reports,
My alleged mistake is that the word “testimony” necessarily (or almost always) refers to subjective and unsupported assertions so my definition of testimony is incorrect ………… but honestly I am not convinced that this is a mistake.
In general terms, because you have an annoying tendency of making irrelevant comments and sometimes I simply ignore them .
Do you want me to quote specific examples? (unlike you I can support my claims and accusations)