Why do religious people not understand that gravity is a theory?

Question

I have seen this in a lot of questions about how can Christians believe in the theory of gravity and not evolution when the reason they give for not believing evolution is they say they cant believe in things that are only theories. They like to quote gravity as a law, like Newton’s law of gravity etc, but if you look into it, they don’t even work properly anymore as we now use the special theory of relativity.
So why will they refuse to understand the fundamentals of a theory?
And dont just say gravity is a fact because things fall down, that doesnt prove gravity its just something we attribute to it based on a current theory.

Gravity is not a law because the way we calaulate it and understand it has changed a little ago as when Einstein wrote his relativity papers.
Though as one of you said gravity tells us the apple will always fall down hence gravity is a law, you forget how the apple falls, and the attributes of its falls have changed as the theory has grown.
Its not a law, deal with it.

Answer 1

Exactly so.
The word "theory" is THE most misunderstood work when used in a scientific context. There are NO laws when dealing with Science. Ever. Only creationists liars say that there are. Gravity, relativity, thermodynamics, evolution, they are ALL theories. And they will always remain so.
The thing these ill-educated morons can't seem to grasp is that something can be a theory, and be true at the same time.
The one thing that the sentence "evolution isn't real, it's just a theory" does though it show you who's got a scrap of brains and who doesn't. Anyone who uses that sentence, doesn't.

EDIT------------------
ROTFLMAO!!!! Oh man thanks for the laugh you morons! And of course, I'm referring to the idiots that say that gravity is a law. For F sakes get some friggen education ok? Or at least get a clue. But the laugh was worth it, so you're not all totally useless...

Answer 2

Good question, even if I've noticed it, I've never asked made this question.

I've found out that most people who use the argument "It's only a theory" can't really tell the difference between "hypothesis" and "theory". They don't know what are the implications of the "theory of evolution" being " only a theory", that is to say, they aren't capable to understand that evolution is already beyond the "my best guess" phase.

My "hypothesis" is that those who claim "it's only a theory" have poor education in science. But hey, it's only a hypothesis!

You can either find believers and unbelievers who know what a "theory" is and believers and unbelievers who don't have a clue what a "theory" is. It's pretty clear though that, those who claim that evolution is "only a theory" to dismiss it, have no idea what a theory is.

And for those who claim otherwise, there are gravity theories, not gravity laws. Some people here are proving your point.

Answer 3

In order to answer this question, we have to analyze the whole context of what you're both asking and stating.

Gravity is a fundamental Law of Physics, established by Sir Issac Newton. Physical laws are distinguished from scientific theories by their simplicity. Scientific theories are generally more complex than laws; they have many component parts, and are more likely to be changed as the body of available experimental data and analysis develops.

This is because a physical law is a summary observation of strictly empirical matters, whereas a theory is a model that accounts for the observation, explains it, relates it to other observations, and makes testable predictions based upon it. Simply stated, while a law notes that something happens, a theory explains why and how something happens, in terms of the more fundamental laws.

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.

The theory is merely an attempt to explain why the apple will always fall toward the center of the planet. Until we can fully ascertain the science behind why mass attracts mass, and can artificially duplicate gravitational observation will continue to be a developing theory. All we're able to do, currently, is observe the unarguable truth behind mass-attraction and the force we call "gravitation".

The "religious people" don't care so much WHY gravity exists, so much as they understand that it merely exists. The scientific community busies themselves with the tasks of trying to explain the known (and unknown) universe. Religion, by it's rudimentary nature, is based upon faith. Faith does not require explanation, but merely the belief in something.

Therefore, the Law of Gravity shows us that the apple will always fall down...which it always does. This is what the "religious people" understand. If you can demonstrate an apple falling upwards when you release it, we can conclude that gravity is only a developing theory and is no longer a Law. You might, then, convince them that gravity is a theory...not fact.

Answer 4

I would answer your question by saying that religious people simply dont believe in theories. As I am christian there's no theory for me. There are just facts or opinions. Gravity is a fact, science proves it as a logical thing. A proverb, not in the Bible, asks: why search a 5th leg to a cat when he just have 4. Why everything is a fact or an opinion? Because God created the world: by just studying how a baby is formed in the body of a woman, how animals and plants grow and are developed in their environment, how our own body works, all this cannot be a coincidence so in fact there is a designer who thinked about each and every detail of our existence. And knows the past present and future... so, US, HUMANS, most of the time we are thinking about those things that God already created and designed and we question them. That's why we create theories trying to understand things without God. Then we create religions to not believe in the truth of God and the purpose for each human, and then we fight against each religion because these are just opinions of what God already based as FACTS. Even your question is a proof of trying to know why people fights for this reason. There is no reason there just one God and one truth which is Jesus who died for us in the cross to save us from our own destruction. So I'm a christian, but I dont have a religion. I dont believe in the opinion of a prophet or a theory or anything that comes from a human. But directly from the word of God and why this is the truth because once I know the truth the truth made me free. An opinion doesnt makes you free, an opinion will make you work for a quest of truth WITHOUT RESULTS as there is only one truth. One fact, if you start from that fact you can find many interesting things but if not we'll still asking questions in yahoo about the purpose and the meaning of our existence. Thank you, and have a good day!!!

Answer 5

Because scientific theory rattles their nerve. Every new scientific theory presented a big chunk of their long held belief being chipped off - a big slapped. Not that the Bible is inaccurate but these people who couldn't understand certain verses inject it with their own interpretation. If these people truly have mastery over truth, then why themselves argue and break up into several denominations/sects( catholics, protestant, etc) over single book to speak of? How can anyone forget what they did to Galileo? And how long was it that they finally got the courage to say "we're sorry. For we do not know what we did." Weren't they the same one who didn't believe in dinosaurs? The list are endless. Get use to it.

Answer 6

Didn't you see the film "Apollo 13"?

In the film (and in the real life Apollo 13 mission), the moon's gravity was used to sling-shot the disabled spacecraft so that it could pick up enough speed to get back to Earth quickly.

I don't recall Ed Harris or Tom Hanks talking about the moon's gravity being a "theory" -- and I don't recall ever reading anything that says that NASA is a Christian organization.

Answer 7

Aerodynamics is only a theory too, and that is in simple terms rediculous. they might have us believe that air on my own may reason issues heavier than air to fly. Do they even imagine about the nonsense they promote!? I propose, there is air everywhere. Why isn't each and every thing flying!? obviously, all flight is almost about intelligence. all of us is smart, and they could fly, so are an excellent style of birds. Penguines and emus are fantastically stupid although, so as that they don't have any hazard of flying. So then, intelligence is answerable for flight and they should be education Intellugent Buoyancy in faculties truly of aevildynamics, which calls for further faith than a faith and is therefor a faith. smart buoyancy could also clarify how Santa's sleigh can fly. Aevildynamics falls flat on its face on that one and could be discredited on that foundation on my own! there are literally thousands of such examples i might want to record.

Answer 8

Gravity is not a "theory" and who ever told you that it is, should be slapped repeatedly.

OMG! Read a few physics text books if you think "Gravity" is a theory. It's what holds us down to this revolving meatball we call earth.

Answer 9

Try not to generalize, k? some pious people do understand the concept of a thoery. they don't believe in gravity cos it's a theory. It is God that is holding them down to earth.

Answer 10

God created everything, the earth, the planets, the stars, all living things and yes He created gravity too. I dont need any scientific theory to believe what my Creator has done. Eveyrthing is written in black and white in the Bible.