Absence of evidence <i>is</i> evidence of absence.<p>If you have a belief about how reality works, normally you would expect that belief to pay some dividend in terms of what you can expect to happen in this situation, or that. Otherwise you&#x27;re just believing a thing for no reason at all. So you can call this anticipation of a certain result &quot;evidence&quot;, and to have it not materialize is, in fact, a solid reason to suspect the truth of what you believe.