Nice article in Wired

[NeilT]

About  Brian Cox debating with Australian Politician Malcom Roberts.

I particularly liked his reference to Empirical evidence but I'd dearly have loved him to add a bit more of the paragraph which defines it.  He uses this part.

Empirical evidence, also known as sense experience, is the knowledge or source of knowledge acquired by means of the senses, particularly by observation and experimentation

However in the meaning paragraph below.

Empirical evidence is information that justifies a belief in the truth or falsity of a claim. In the empiricist view, one can claim to have knowledge only when one has a true belief based on empirical evidence. This stands in contrast to the rationalist view under which reason or reflection alone is considered evidence for the truth or falsity of some propositions

This leads me into an image I've borrowed from Joe Romm's site.