Witness Evidence

[RoadRunner79]

If someone wants to use testimony of a trusted person to confirm his own experiences or beliefs, he may do so.  However, if he does NOT hold a belief, and isn't easily inclined to do so, he will not be willing to accept the testimony of any number of people, particularly if he finds their claims contrary to what he knows about reality.

Perhaps for you.... but now I see you as no different in your justification than the young earth crowd (perhaps less so; as you don't even refer to something outside of yourself).

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I think that you are making large assumptions here about me.  I am definitely going to make a distinction between the observation and the conclusion.  And I am going to challenge the person who only gives the conclusion, without the reason for the conclusion.  I have this every now and then at work.   They tell me, that component X was bad, they replaced it and still had the problem.  I have come very close to yelling at someone, to tell me what they saw and heard, rather, than what they think is wrong with the machine.  I want their testimony, not their conclusion.

I see the same thing in discussions, where people do not want to reason through their claims, and just jump to the conclusion as well.

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You have finally produced an example.  Let's say that at your work, several people supported the claim that component X was bad.  Would their number matter?  No.  If their claims were inconsistent with what you know about the machinery, and especially since the problem persisted, you would arrive at the conclusion that 'n' number of workmates were idiots.  And if you were a foreman, you might also wonder if they were all liars as well.  And if you were foreman of a very large company, and their were hundreds whose "testimony" pointed to component X being bad, for which you can immediately see there's no evidence, you wouldn't change your mind; you'd slap your head, maybe recommend a few dismissals, and start looking for people who were capable of grasping reality.

Am I wrong?
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Now who is confusing a conclusion for testimony?

And I wouldn't fire people for a mistake. Everyone gets stuck in a pattern of thinking sometimes (even some who I consider to be very good). Also there have been times, where I check things out, and come to the same conclusion that the component still is bad. In this case, I am very thorough, but I have had people wait for another component to come in based on my testimony.

There are also a number of times, where I have to rely mostly on testimony. Either the problem is intermittent and non-repeatable, may risk harm to the person (or thousands of dollars of damage to the machine). In such an instance, I'm not going to have to see it to believe it. However if I can check it easily for myself, then I normally do.