History cannot be proven

Source: John Dickson (2006) The Christ Files: How historians know what they know about Jesus.

Page 14
‘Certainty’ cannot really be achieved in the study of history. Virtually nothing about the past can be proven in the mathematical sense. Historical evidence allows is to talk about probabilities rather than certainties. In many ways, it is like legal evidence. ‘Beyond reasonable doubt’ does not mean certain; it means that a particular conclusion is so well supported by the evidence that to doubt it, or to insist on an alternative explanation, is unreasonable. Many historical conclusions are of a similar nature. People will always be able to find alternative explanations of historical data but the question will always be asked by mainstream experts: are the alternatives reasonable?