Stupid Sayings

Jeeves said:
In the case of black swans, or black holes, or black scientists, in the absence of evidence of their existence, we simply proceed as if they didn't exist and leave the door open, in case one shows up - and then we'll change the theory.
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Einstein's GR predicted black holes before we confirmed any.

The argument that 'we don't see any black holes' is not 'evidence that refutes GR'. We did indeed, change the theory before we had (that specific, explicit) evidence.

Same goes for a number of predictive theories. The CMBR is another one.

I'd say the key difference lies in theories that make testable predictions. The "God theory" does not, as far as I've seen so far, make testable predictions. And that's where the adage gets abused.
 
I didn't say the absence of proof; I said the absence of evidence. You may count a mathematically, or indirectly, supported scientific theory which explains an observed phenomenon or set of phenomena, as circumstantial or tangential or pending evidence that has not yet been tested. (I was only using the black things as a literary, not literal example, not a challenge to theoretical physics.)

I mean the exact opposite criteria apply.
In the mundane world, when we have no reason to believe something exists, we act as if it didn't.
Except gods: when we have no reason to believe they exist, we act is they not only existed but had the power to invalidate the things that do exist.
 
Agree. This is why I called out Exchemist's contribution. It's not a stupid saying. But, like anything, it is susceptible to abuse.
 
DaveC426913 said:
While it is open to abuse, I do not agree that it is a dumb statement. It has its place in logical debate.

The classic 'black swan' example is one. I don't see any black swans here, but that is poor evidence that they don't exist.
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But, "I have looked high and low, asked all the experts and I don't find any evidence of black swans at all" is evidence, though not of course proof, of the hypothesis that they don't exist. So, to claim absence of evidence is not evidence of absence is a false statement, as it stands. It would need to be qualified, either by saying it is not proof of absence, or that it is not necessarily evidence of absence.
 
I'm quite sure people know that "absence of evidence" doesn't prove absence. But until evidence comes along absence is the best evidence for absence.
 
It's always in the last place you look

Noooooo

It was in the 3rd - 9th - 14th place and I found it in the 25th place I looked

Which just happened to be the same as the 3rd - 9th - 14th place I just didn't see it

But it was there

:)
 
When God closes a door he opens a window. (And then he shoves you out of it.)

"I like all my cousins better than any of my relatives." (No shit, I heard that a few months ago while talking to one of my cousins.)
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
When God closes a door he opens a window. (And then he shoves you out of it.)
"I like all my cousins better than any of my relatives." (No shit, I heard that a few months ago while talking to one of my cousins.)
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The one with 6 fingers each hand and webbed toes?????

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
It's always in the last place you look:)
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Of course it is. When you find it, you stop looking. Usually. It's happened to me that I picked up the flashlight that had been in the 3rd, 9th and 14th place I looked and then kept right on searching, with the flashlight in my hand and couldn't find it anywhere.
Today, it was a paintbrush went missing.
I think I'm getting old.
 
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Jeeves said:
When you find it, you stop looking.
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Just because you stop looking does not negate that it WAS NOT in the last place because it was there in 3rd, 9th and 14th place

You might be confusing "It's always in the last place you find it"

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
Just because you stop looking does not negate that it WAS NOT in the last place because it was there in 3rd, 9th and 14th place

You might be confusing "It's always in the last place you find it"

:)
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Where you find it is the last place you look.
It was there in 3rd, 9th and 14th place, as well as the 25th and last.
The fact that that last place also figured earlier in the search, or how many times it recurred, or whether the item was in that place all long, or whether the itme flitted behind things and under stuff, seeking out alternative hiding places and going back to places where you had already searched just to fake you out (nail scissors do that, and sometimes car keys) the place where the search ends is still the last place. Of course, sometimes the item is not even in that last place, you just call off the search for sheer exhaustion, in which case the saying would be invalid. It is generally invalid in the case of the other black sock.
 
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