Proof and evidence. These are very important terms for any debate. But what got me thinking about them recently was, not a debate, but an article I can't even actually remember. It had something to do with astronomy, something educational... and it was presented in a Question-and-Answer format. What I remember about it is one of the questions, "Are there intelligent aliens out there?" The answer given was "There is no proof of aliens".
Something about that simple line just bugged me, and after a bit of turning it over in my head, I realized what it was: the misuse of the term "proof", when the term that should have been used was "evidence". Thinking further about it, I realized that this was not just a problem from this particular article -- this is something that happens a LOT in debates, and religious ones in particular.
