It’s not enough that the data be consistent with your theory; they have to be inconsistent with the negation of your theory, the dreaded null hypothesis. I may assert that I possess telekinetic abilities so powerful that I can drag the sun out from beneath the horizon—if you want proof, just go outside at about five in the morning and see the results of my work! But this kind of evidence is no evidence at all, because, under the null hypothesis that I lack psychic gifts, the sun would come up just the same.
