Testimony is Evidence

[bennyboy]

I don't think that I understand where you disagree, with the etymology literal meaning of "bringing something into view"  or perhaps you are not disagreeing.   The modern dictionary definitions I gave, I would think match up with this (I believe) more figurative sourcing of the word.  Or are you saying to be evidence, that you need to literally bring it into the view of a person?  I would think from your examples, this is not the case.  In your example of a believed roman coin, I would agree, that a non-expert, can tell you what they seen, and why they think it is a roman coin.  An expert may be able to tell you more, or even be able to give information from the witness description if it is good enough.  

We can use whatever we want, or disregard whatever we want, as evidence. To some people, even hard science-- pictures, measurements, and so on, don't constitute evidence. To some, even the vaguest feelings, like hairs standing on end, are very clear evidence of ghosts or God.

I'm saying that evidence has to reveal the truth of something in a way that is not dependent on social interactions-- charisma, authority, appeal to numbers and so on.

I'm a little disappointed with you here.  My image of you, is of someone who thinks through things, and I would have thought that you might have given me the benefit of the doubt in doing the same, rather than jumped to imagined motivations, and where you think I'm trying to go with this.  I'm only looking to discuss testimony, as I find that many atheist seem to make strong objections, I find are unique to the group.  I may start thinking, that as much as they bring up God in the discussion, and avoid discussion, that it is more of an issue for them, then for me.   But also, I think that you are thinking of a different sense of the word testimony, sometimes used in the sense of a religious personal (not shared by others) experience.  I am not;  I'm talking about witness testimony as described above.  If testimony is evidence, it value as evidence, and the reasoning behind these views.

I think it's a little unusual for a religious person to come to an atheist site and repeatedly bring up the idea of the validity of testimony just for something to do. You may not be TALKING specifically about religious testimony, and have been careful not to. Nevertheless, I don't think it's unreasonable for me to read between the lines and guess that you have a reason for your interest in evidence that goes beyond simple jurisprudence.

If I ask my wife if it's sometimes okay for a man to cheat on his wife, or ask her to define what "cheating really means" to her, she's not going to start making bullet points for interest's sake. She's unlikely to take at face value that I just have an academic interest in coupled relationships. She's going to start checking my phone and waiting for the other shoe to drop.