Does evolution have a proven theory to back it up? The fossil record is a fact. How did it happen?

Question

I googled "evolution fact or theory" and was surprised there did not seem to be any theory that had been proven.

Are we accepting a theory on faith, that may be unrealistic?

www.peace-purpose-
prosperity.com

Answer 1

First of all, you should have googled or wiki'd "theory". Here's one definition, from wikipedia :

"In science, a theory is a proposed description, explanation, or model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation. It follows from this that for scientists "theory" and "fact" do not necessarily stand in opposition. For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theory which explains why the apple behaves so is the current theory of gravitation."

I find this explanation to be more easily understood :

"A theory is a hypothesis on the causes of an event, that fits all observable facts". That is, a theory is valid as long as all the observations carried out on the described event, confrom to what the theory says should happen.

The Theory Of Evolution makes some statements on how species evolve in time. All specific natural processes that have been observed follow those rules, so, the theory of evolution must be true.

Note also, that a theory in scientific terms is not just whisful thinking. It explains a natural pheonmenon. It is valid as long as it acurately describes that pehenomenon.

Answer 2

It is nearly impossible to prove anything outside of math or logic. Scientific laws are not necessarily stronger than scientific theories, just simpler. The theory of evolution is one of, if not the strongest theories known to mankind, since it has surmounted more scientific scrutiny than perhaps any other theory or law and it is very intuitive if you put down the bible.

There is also much more evidence than the fossil record itself. There are many studies observing some evolution in various species. Cancer is evolution in your body... so obviously evolution on the scale of cells must occur. But the big thing is that the predictions made by evolutionary theory in nearly all realms of biology have for the most part proven to be true.

What you have to understand is that a theory is supported by the failure to destroy it. The more that people try to destroy evolution... and fail, the stronger it becomes. In nearly every realm of current biology there have been attempts to see if evolution corresponds to empirical evidence and there is alot of evidence. My favorite example is from the genetics. The amount of information that we have from genome projects and from proteomics is staggering. Yet it has not been at all contradictory to the theory of evolution. Instead we see, for the most part, steadily more changes between less related species and proteins entering one family chain, even though those proteins could be just as useful in another chain. Not at all like we would expect if there was a god in charge and just like we would expect if species evolved.

Answer 3

A theory is a postulate that attempts to explain observed events. In that sense both evolution and intelligent design are theories.

However, all scientific "facts" are theories - gravity, electromagnetism, etc. The theories are then compared to the observed evidence and when a huge weight of evidence supports the theory we accept it as fact. But it is a choice. From a strictly scientific point of view gravity and evolution remain theories and may be disproven. They just haven't been.

On this basis the theory of evolution is a fact due to the huge weight of evidence from the fossil record, embryology and developmental biology, genetics and many other scientific disciplines and the lack of evidence to suggest that it may be incorrect.

In the case of disciplines like molecular genetics and palaeontology it is simply impossible to make any sense of these subjects without a fundamental understanding of evolutionary biology and conversely the evidence from these disciplines makes evolution as a theory irrefutable.

Answer 4

Before Darwin people understood that children are similar to their parents, which allowed them breed dogs and livestock by selecting which are allowed to breed. Darwin turned this into a theory of how successive generations change: populations have variations of traits that influence what individuals survive to have children with similar traits. So, over time a population changes, influenced by environment. This theory is accepted as fact by scientists.

Has evolution been "proven"? Scientific theories are accepted when it is demonstrated that they explain observations and predict certain outcomes. The theory of evolution meets these criteria. However, observations of changes over thousands and millions of years rely on the fossil record. Skeptics question whether the fossil record supports the kind of evolutionary change required to morph primitive creatures into humans. However, evolution, along with our understanding of DNA and heredity, is the key theory that explains how organisms change from generation to generation.

Answer 5

That's because if something is proven, it's not longer a theory. It's a law. A theory is something that seems to be true and has evidence to support it, but not enough to know for sure if it's always true. A hypothesis is an idea that might be true but has no evidence.

Answer 6

One can find a wide variety of evidence for evolution; not only throughout geologic history, but it can be seen on a daily basis in the rapid evolution of some microbes, especially those causing diseases. A good example is the evolution of antibiotic resistent diseases. Genome mapping is disclosing great detail about the evolution of a wide range of animals and plants.

Answer 7

Evolution is a fact.The fossils prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.The problem is the so called missing link in human evolution. And it will remain a problem until God comes into the picture.If you are an atheist I would be wasting my time trying to explain it to you.Let me know what your orientation is and I will explain it to you.It is a long story.