Posted by Gremlin [12.253.230.83 - 12-253-230-83.client.attbi.com] on 16 July 2002 at 19.55.51 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: assert assertations posted by Andy on 16 July 2002 at 11.24.15 ZuluTime:

Here's a pretty good definition of what evidence is:

Scientific evidence is information that has been developed through a process known as the "scientific method" -- meaning that the information is considered valid because it has been tested and shown to accurately describe what it purports to describe. Typically, scientific evidence has been published in journals, tested by other scientists and generally accepted as valid within the relevant scientific community. Common examples of scientific evidence include DNA analyses, hair and fiber comparisons, fingerprints and voice identification evidence.

And here is a better explanation:

It took a long while to determine how is the world better investigated. One way is to just talk about it (for example Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, stated that males and females have different number of teeth, without bothering to check; he then provided long arguments as to why this is the way things ought to be). This method is unreliable: arguments cannot determine whether a statement is correct, this requires proofs.
     A better approach is to do experiments and perform careful observations. The results of this approach are universal in the sense that they can be reproduced by any skeptic. It is from these ideas that the scientific method was developed. Most of science is based on this procedure for studying Nature.

The latter example comes from http://phyun5.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node5.html, which is probably worth reading over to fully understand the meanings of hypothesis, theory, and fact.

The shortest explanation is probably that: evidence shows a condition to be true, to the extent that faith is no longer required.