vol III Development:

Chapter 1: Epistemology

page 6: Evidence

How do we know that we know the truth? How can we tell if someone is being honest? These questions are not easy, and they have generated many answers. The answer supported here goes under the general name of evidence, that is, constraints drawn from a record what has happened. We use our memory of the past to predict and control the future. Evidence - Wikipedia

Items of evidence are appearances from which inferences may be drawn. On this site we are considering the Universe as a boundless multilayered network, and in such a network every piece of evidence is a physically embodied message. As we have discussed in the page on truth, some messages are very easy to interpret, others quite difficult, and we find the same spectrum in the realm of evidence.

Justice

Evidence plays an important role in the administration of justice. Someone has been killed? Who is responsible? The best evidence is an admission freely given, although even there we may find people confessing to crimes they did not commit for some reason or another, perhaps to protect a child or friend.

Then we have the evidence of witnesses, people who saw the killing. If there are no witnesses, police and the prosecution must rely on circumstantial evidence, motive, opportunity, and physical evidence such as fingerprints, hairs, DNA and so on. The popular criminal investigation programs on television provide us with much information (sometimes misleading) about the procedures used by police and other investigators.

Once sufficient evidence has been found to justify prosecution, the evidence is then subjected to public testing in court. Here witnesses, investigators and experts are generally required to tell 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'.

Lying under oath, tampering with evidence and deliberately misinterpreting it are forms of perjury, intended to pervert the course of justice, and are generally treated as serious offenses. Organized perversion of justice is commonly used by dictatorial regimes which wish to hide their crimes behind the illusion of fair trial. Perjury - Wikipedia, , Richard Dicker, Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Systems of criminal law and courts of justice have evolved over a long period, and peace and good government rely heavily upon them. We are all aware that these procedures sometimes fail, due to deceit, corruption or human error, but the legal system provides us with a paradigm for collecting and handling evidence under difficult, often adversarial, conditions. This paradigm which is widely applied in other fields.

Science

The justice system deals with individual human actions, often in adversarial circumstances. Many legal systems use a jury of peers to decide, in the light of the evidence before the court, whether the accused is guilty or not guilty of the offence alleged. Graham Fricke, Peer group - Wikipedia

Scientific communities operate in a similar way, relying upon specialists in the same or similar fields ('peers') to pass judgement on the collection and application of evidence to support an hypothetical position. This process proceeds formally in 'peer review' and informally in all interactions of groups of scientists interested in particular questions. Peer review - Wikipedia

Science is committed in principle to following the evidence, uninfluenced by personal, political or financial motives. This principle does not always prevail. As a result scientific misconduct is not uncommon. We rely on the fearless implementation of the peer review process to detect and correct such breaches of the scientific faith. Scientific misconduct - Wikipedia

Mathematics.

Landauer long ago pointed out that information is physical. Information in the Universe is represented by physical objects of one sort or another. This need for representation, coupled with the finite size of the quantum of action, places limits on the amount of memory and processing power available to the Universe in any locality. Rolf Landauer: Information is physical, Quantum - Wikipedia

Mathematics uses symbolism and imagination to avoid the limitations of physical representation so that it can deal with infinite sets of symbols and infinitesimal objects like points and lines. This disembodied approach to structure, known as formalism, provides us with a firm reference system by which we can design and judge all our technology. The whole of trade and banking, for instance, is heavily reliant on arithmetic. Formalism (mathematics) - Wikipedia

Evidence in mathematics is proof, that is an unbroken logical continuum from a set of premisses to a set of conclusions. Such a logical continuum can be implemented mechanically with a computer. One of the founding miracles of science is that mathematics serves to form a very useful logical backbone for science. Since mathematics is self-consistent (as closely we can make it) this suggests that the Universe is itself self-consistent, a very comforting thought and one of the founding ideas of this site. Mathematical proof - Wikipedia, Turing machine - Wikipedia, Eugene Wigner: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics . . .

Theology

The science of interest here is theology. Science and theology parted ways in Galileo's day. Theology continues to rely principally on ancient written authorities. Science, on the other hand, is tied to contemporary observation. Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia

Here we reject the current theological assumption that God is an entity wholly other than the visible Universe, completely hidden from our sight and beyond our understanding. This position has been used politically for millennia by elites wishing to legitimize their exploitation of the not-elite. Paul Colossians

By assuming that God is visible, that is by assuming that what we see is divine, we open the way to scientific theology. Such theology must follow the evidence of our senses like all the other sciences.

(revised 7 August 2014)

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Dawkins, Richard, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design, Penguin/Pelican 1996 Preface: '[Darwinism] is, indeed a remarkably simple theory; ... In essence it amounts simply to the idea that non-random reproduction where there is hereditary variation, has consequences that are far reaching if there is time for them to be cumulative ... '  Amazon   back

Gardner, Thomas J, Criminal Evidence: Principles and Cases, # Wadsworth Publishing 2006 Amazon Book Description:'Book Description Gardner and Anderson cover the key rules of evidence and the applicability of these rules in criminal matters. The authors provide students with an understanding of the rationale behind these rules, and focus on making the rules accessible to law enforcement officers who must apply them on the job. This text includes many of the features that have popularized Gardner/Anderson's best-selling CRIMINAL LAW text, including high-interest examples, boxes that focus in on key concepts, and case excerpts. Unlike competing texts, CRIMINAL EVIDENCE: PRINCIPLES AND CASES is comprehensive without being encyclopedic or overwhelming.'  Amazon   back

Kiralfy, A K R (ed), Potters Historical Introduction to English Law and its Institutions , Sweet and Maxwell 1958 back

Walker, Geoffrey de Q, The Rule of Law: Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, Melbourne University Press 1988 Jacket: 'The author argues that the survival of any useful rule of law model is currently threatened by distortions in the adjudication process, by perversion of law enforcement (by fabrication of evidence and other means), by the excessive production of new legislation with its degrading effect on long-term legal certainty and on long-standing safeguards, and by legal theories that are hostile to the very concept of rule of law. In practice these trends have produced a great number of legal failures from which we must learn.'  Amazon   back

Weinberg, Steven, The Quantum Theory of Fields Volume I: Foundations, Cambridge University Press 1995 Jacket: 'After a brief historical outline, the book begins anew with the principles about which we are most certain, relativity and quantum mechanics, and then the properties of particles that follow from these principles. Quantum field theory then emerges from this as a natural consequence. The classic calculations of quantum electrodynamics are presented in a thoroughly modern way, showing the use of path integrals and dimensional regularization. The account of renormalization theory reflects the changes in our view of quantum field theory since the advent of effective field theories. The book's scope extends beyond quantum elelctrodynamics to elementary partricle physics and nuclear physics. It contains much original material, and is peppered with examples and insights drawn from the author's experience as a leader of elementary particle research. Problems are included at the end of each chapter. '  Amazon   back

Links

Australian Defence Lawyers Alliance Perjury Offences | NSW Criminal Offences 'Welcome to the New South Wales Perjury Charges page. Everything you need to know about Perjury Charges according to New South Wales law can be found in this section of the website.' back

Eugene Wigner The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences 'The first point is that the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it. Second, it is just this uncanny usefulness of mathematical concepts that raises the question of the uniqueness of our physical theories.' back

Evidence - Wikipedia Evidence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Evidence, broadly construed, is anything presented in support of an assertion. This support may be strong or weak. The strongest type of evidence is that which provides direct proof of the truth of an assertion. At the other extreme is evidence that is merely consistent with an assertion but does not rule out other, contradictory assertions, as in circumstantial evidence.' back

Formalism (mathematics) - Wikipedia Formalism (mathematics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In foundations of mathematics, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of logic, formalism is a theory that holds that statements of mathematics and logic can be thought of as statements about the consequences of certain string manipulation rules. For example, Euclidean geometry can be seen as a game whose play consists in moving around certain strings of symbols called axioms according to a set of rules called "rules of inference" to generate new strings. In playing this game one can "prove" that the Pythagorean theorem is valid because the string representing the Pythagorean theorem can be constructed using only the stated rules.' back

Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Galileo Galilei (. . . 15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly known as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science".' back

Graham Fricke Trial by Jury - Parliament of Australia 'When federal Parliament creates criminal offences, the question arises as to whether such offences should be tried by judge and jury, or tried summarily by a magistrate. The framers of the Australian Constitution inserted section 80, which appears to confer a right to jury trial. A difficulty results from the use of the words 'on indictment' in the opening words of section 80. . . . It is contended that there have been three eras of interpretation of section 80: an initial period in which the section was regarded as laying down a fundamental law of the Commonwealth; a much longer period in which a narrow, 'procedural' approach was taken; and the last decade, which reveals a tendency to revert to the broad approach.' back

Imagination - Wikipedia Imagination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses. Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental faculty through which people make sense of the world, and it also plays a key role in the learning process. A basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling (narrative), in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to "evoke worlds."' back

Mathematical proof - Wikipedia Mathematical proof - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In mathematics, a proof is a deductive argument for a mathematical statement. In the argument, other previously established statements, such as theorems, can be used. In principle, a proof can be traced back to generally accepted statements, known as axioms.[1][2] Proofs are examples of deductive reasoning and are distinguished from inductive or empirical arguments; a proof must demonstrate that a statement is always true (occasionally by listing all possible cases and showing that it holds in each), rather than enumerate many confirmatory cases. An unproven statement that is believed true is known as a conjecture.' back

Molly Hennessy-Fiske Louisiana death row inmate 300th prisoner freed by DNA evidence 'A Louisiana man was released from death row on Friday after serving 15 years for a crime that DNA evidence shows he did not commit. Damon Thibodeaux, 38, was the 300th prisoner nationwide to see his conviction overturned based on DNA evidence, according to lawyers who represented him from the New York-based Innocence Project. He was the 18th death row prisoner freed based on such evidence.' back

Murder Investigation team - Wikipedia Murder Investigation team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Murder/Major Investigation Teams (MIT) are the specialised homicide squads of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. Forming part of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, itself part of the Specialist Crime Directorate, there is one MIT for each Borough Operational Command Unit. MITs investigate cases of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder where the evidence of intent is unambiguous, or where a risk assessment identifies substantive risk to life.[1] They also undertake investigations into missing persons or abductions where there is a reason to suspect life has been taken or is under threat and other investigations identified for specialist needs.' back

Paul Colossians 1:15 'New International Version The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.' back

Peer group - Wikipedia Peer group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Peer group may be defined as a group of people who, through homophily, share similarities such as age, background, and social status. [Homophily (i.e., "love of the same") is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others.]' back

Peer review - Wikipedia Peer review - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers). It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication.' back

Perjury - Wikipedia Perjury - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or of falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding.[1][A] That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the proceeding. For example, it is not considered perjury to lie about one's age unless age is a factor in determining the legal result, such as eligibility for old age retirement benefits.' back

Perverting the course of justice - Wikipedia Perverting the course of justice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Perverting the course of justice, in Canadian, English, Hong Kong, and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party. It is a common law offence carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Perverting the course of justice can be any of three acts: Fabricating or disposing of evidence Intimidating or threatening a witness or juror Intimidating or threatening a judge.' back

Quantum - Wikipedia Quantum - Wikipedia, the ffree encyclopedia 'In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization".[1] This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete values. back

Richard Dicker Guantanamo's perversion of justice 'At Guantánamo, . . . the rules curtail essential rights of the defense to rebut incriminating evidence. The military commissions there allow hearsay evidence, which international tribunals permit as well. But at Guantánamo, the circumstances around which much of the evidence was obtained are considered a national security matter and even the defense lawyers, with top secret security clearance, are denied access. The prosecutor may introduce evidence the defendant has no way to challenge.' back

Rolf Landauer Information is a Physical Entity 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that, on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back

Scientific misconduct - Wikipedia Scientific misconduct - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research. A Lancet review on Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countries provides the following sample definitions:[1] (reproduced in The COPE report 1999.)[2] Danish definition: "Intention or gross negligence leading to fabrication of the scientific message or a false credit or emphasis given to a scientist" Swedish definition: "Intention[al] distortion of the research process by fabrication of data, text, hypothesis, or methods from another researcher's manuscript form or publication; or distortion of the research process in other ways." ' back

Turing machine - Wikipedia Turing machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Turing machines are extremely basic abstract symbol-manipulating devices which, despite their simplicity, can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm (as we understand them). They were described in 1936 by Alan Turing. Though they were intended to be technically feasible, Turing machines were not meant to be a practical computing technology, but a thought experiment about the limits of mechanical computation; thus they were not actually constructed. Studying their abstract properties yields many insights into computer science and complexity theory.' back