[lcnPylGDnU4H9OF]

Maybe it's because I see a distinction between "dismiss" and "deny". Where someone might dismiss ("There is no evidence to back up these claims") there are instead denials ("They made this up"). Anyway, I don't mean to change your mind, just to provide a different perspective.

[Haunted_Cabbage]

I think there's a trivial semantic difference between the two terms. The assertion that someone made up a story is the logical conclusion to the assertion that there is no evidence to back up their claims.

[lcnPylGDnU4H9OF]

I don't see the difference as so trivial. Using my previous statements, "There is no evidence to back up these claims" is an observation which allows for the listener to draw their own conclusion and "They made this up" is a conclusion that's being asserted.

> The assertion that someone made up a story is the logical conclusion to the assertion that there is no evidence to back up their claims.

It is a logical conclusion. One might still arrive at a different logical conclusion.

[Haunted_Cabbage]

I see. For instance, it might not have been them who made it up, it could have been someone else.

However, given all of the information known at the time, there's little evidence to suggest that anyone aside from them was responsible for the assertions without evidence, which again leads to the same logical conclusion.