 of the problem in your epistemology is you make this distinction between a claim and evidence. I totally disagree with that. Because a claim is evidence. A claim is not evidence. If I say I have a hundred dollar bill in my wallet, that's a claim. It is not evidence in and of itself. If you are a trusted friend who has a track record of being habitually reliable and you say to me I have a hundred bucks in my pocket, then that is something I'm going to believe you on. I completely agree with you and you've just demonstrated how your objection is fundamentally flawed in my epistemology as sound. What you're using is your understanding of how reliable and trustworthy I am. That is the evidence that supports whether or not my claim is likely to be true. I have no problem with that.