Can a very minor scratch on the lens of my camera....?

can a very minor scratch on the outside of my lens camera ever affect picture quality?.....(it's sooo minor that u hav to look VERY close at the lens to see it).....what can i take a picture of to see if the scratch will ever be visible in any lighting condition?......and wat does "flare" look like and wat does it mean? (oh and the camera is a point and shoot camera-canon)

This is lens flare http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutoria... . A scratch may cause diffraction that will show up as lens flare. It's the same principle as normal lens flare only with the scratch there are acute compound angles. Try to avoid situations that would normally produce lens flare.
A scratch can also show as a very soft out of focus area. And, there is the likely possibility that you have scratched the coating on the glass which will not be as big of a problem as a scratch into the glass.

Hardly. Unfortunately most point and shoots won't take a filter to protect the lens. Just be careful, I suppose.

Flare looks like when you point the camera at the sun. The (sun) light reflects back from within the elements (different pieces of glass that a lens is made up.) A well made lens tends to have less flare than a cheapo. A hood helps a little unless you point it right at the sun.

This lens (Canon 24-70 mm f 2.8 L) is pretty well made (about $1,200) and I have never seen a flare. This photo was taken with the sun right behind the subjects.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_pook...

I doubt you'll see any problems from a minor scratch.

Part Two: Flare is as explained by Pooly, but here are some examples. I did this intentionally to show people what flare looks like. Read the comments so you know what you are looking at.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...

I created this flare intentionally, also, but this time it was to enhance the image.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...