Wet Grass Is Evidence Of Rain

It rained on me in Montreal, so I learned all what I need to know to defend the resolution. My opponent seems to argue that this resolution is basically a "Rain of the Gaps" argument, which is similar to God of the Gaps argument [1]. While I also hate these types of arguments, my opponent falls short here. Framework What I have to demonstrate in this debate, is to prove that wet grass is evidence for the existence of rain. More specifically, I have to demonstrate that wet grass is evidence of the rain phenomenon. As Con has explained, evidence means "a particular proposition is likely true". It doesn't mean that it is necessarily true, extremely probable or most likely true. All I need to justify is that it's more likely than not (i. e. greater than 50% probability). Wet grass clearly consists of a) Grass and b) Wetness. I would successfully fulfill my BoP (Burden of Proof) if I am able to prove that even one of those two components is evidence of rain. Grass Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on Earth [2]. The water cycle is essential for the maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet [3]. In other words, without the water cycle, it is most likely that all life, including plants and grass would have never existed. Therefore it follows necessarily and logically that that the existence of grass (and any form of life) is evidence for the existence of rain. Case closed. WetnessI will prove my resolution by using the law of contradiction. Let's assume that the water cycle is broken and there is no rain. If that's the case, then most of the water would have either remained in the salty oceans, remained deep inside the Earth or evaporated in the atmosphere. But if the grass is somehow wet, then there is water on land, and that is evident that the water cycle is not broken. Therefore, wetness on grass is evidence that rain exists. Rebuttal Con argues that "It can rain and the grass can remain dry". I don't have an issue with this statement. Con is arguing that because "it can rain, and the grass remains dry", then it follows that "wet grass is not evidence of rain". But that's non-sequitur. Con's argument would only be valid if "It can rain and the grass remains always dry or almost never gets wet", but that's definitely not the case. Con then says if "Dry grass is evidence of rain? " (sic), and I answer yes. I've explained that before. Con then does a probability calculation to show that the probability that rain caused the wet grass is 16.67%. I really laughed when I saw that urine has an equal chance like rain… But Con doesn't understand that his calculations only apply to uniform distributions [5] (i. e. each possible outcome has an equal probability). It's like saying that the probability of Hillary Clinton's to win the Democratic nomination for President in 2016 is 1/6 = 16.67%, but her actual chances are 57.0% at the time of this posting, which means that she is more likely to win the Democratic nomination [4]. To turn this point against Con, there is actually evidence that rain is the most likely cause of wet grass. I've already shown before that rain deposits most of the fresh water on Earth [2]. So it's more likely than not that wet grass was caused by rain, than anything else (especially urine! ). Conclusion I've demonstrated that grass most likely wouldn't have existed in the first place without rain. Therefore grass by itself is evidence of rain. I've also demonstrated that water most likely wouldn't exist on the surface of the earth if the water cycle is broken, and there was no rain. Water would have either remained in the oceans, deep in the soil or locked in the atmosphere. So the existence of wet grass is evidence that the water cycle is not broken and hence is evidence of rain. Therefore I affirm. Over to Con! Sources [1] . https://en.wikipedia.org... [2] . https://en.wikipedia.org... [3] . https://www.boundless.com... [4] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[5] . https://en.wikipedia.org...(discrete)