Howcome it's called the "evolution theory", and NOT the "evolution fact"?

Question

Scientists can't make their minds up yet?

Dave H: well no duh, genius. I'm asking the people who lean back on this "theory" of theirs, since they use it as a crutch, and teach it like it's fact.

It's being taught in school like it's fact. With so much "evidence" by scientists and archaeologists alike to support this theory, why is it still classified as a "theory" and not a fact? There's not enough evidence to support it, STILL?? Or is there too much doubt over the evidence that's been found?

It was a theory at one point, that the Earth was flat, but EVIDENCE clearly proved that the Earth is round. Howcome all the "evidence" to support the evolution theory can't prove that it to be fact? Pretty weak and feeble evidence, I'd say. The evidence is there, but it's still a theory. Ha, go figure.

Answer 1

It is a theory because it has a degree of falsafiability.

Answer 2

In science, "fact" and "theory" have very specific meanings. A fact is something that demonstrably _is_, like, say, gravity. It happens, you can't deny it. However, scientists talk about the "theory of gravitation". This does not mean that they don't know if gravity exists. On the contrary, a "theory" is kind of the story of how something works. The theory of gravitation includes those equations you learned in high school while you were making little cars go down a track or dropping balls down an incline. They explain how gravity works. Science purposely keeps these explainations open; you never know when someone will come along with a theory that better fits the available data. This happened with Einstein. Scientists could never quite square Newton's gravitational theory with the orbits of a couple of planets. When Einstein came along with his various theories, he was able to explain them quite nicely. Therefore, Newton isn't really used if you want to be precise. It still works for the in-between stuff, pretty much, so they still teach it to you in high school, but it's kinda... not close enough for a lot of other stuff.

So, evolutionary theory is the explanation of how evolution works. There is no doubt that evolution exists; the only questions are how, precisely, it works. There is still a lot of debate in the scientific community over that, but the basic principles- that critters with genes that help them survive pass them on to their children, and these changes over time lead to new species- is not in doubt. Evolutionary theory is kind of huge. You've heard of the Unified Field Theory, that unites all of science under one basic idea? That has not yet been discovered? Yeah, evolutionary theory is basically that, for biology. With Darwin's one book, the entirety of biology was completely revolutionized, medicine really went into some spectacular directions, and anthropology and paleontology were able to become sciences. Good theory. Now if they could just finish working out the kinks...

Answer 3

This must have been discussed sooo many times I'm getting bored of it.

A hypothesis is a scientific statement with no evidence to back it up - i.e. god created earth in 7 days 10000 years ago.

A theory is a hypothesis backed up by observable evidence. Almost everything in science is a theory (evolution is one of the most strongly supported theories ever published), it is only a theory that the earth goes round the sun, it is only a theory that objects fall towards the earth when dropped from a height.

A fact requires proof, and in science this is pretty much impossible, it is only really possible to prove things in maths - i.e. it can be logically prooved that root(2) is irrational, but it is impossible to prove something based on evidence.

Answer 4

Once again, with ever word you write, you prove how little you actually know.

A scientist (i.e somebody who is actually capable of thinking) starts off with a HYPOTHESIS, or idea. They then collect EVIDENCE to test the hypotheisis. The evidence should be solid, and replicable. If the evidence tends to support the hypothesis, this will form the basis of a THEORY. the throery may then be modified as more evidence is collected. Only when no exception to the theory can be found will it become a LAW.

Or, you can say, here is a 2000 year old book, every word in it must be true.

Answer 5

Think of it this way: when you're doing work in school, you have the practical work, where you actually do things, and you have the theory behind it, where you study or write about it. That is the definition of theory that science uses.

Scientists still talk about the theory of gravity rather than the law of gravity. The law can be observed practically (by doing the work and seeing the evidence) whereas the theory is the principles behind it, why does it happen and how.

Another way of looking at is this:

Cause and effect - we can see the effect, but the cause is not so well defined, that is where we introduce a theory behind it and use evidence to back it up.

I'm guessing you're kind of stupid as you're still ignoring the definition that science uses that we have given you multiple times, I even gave it to you in my question that you answered on this same subject.

Answer 6

This is a very good question that proves why most people do not understand what science is and how it works.

In science THEORIES are used to explain FACTS.

FACT ------> when you hold a pen up in the air and let go of it the pen drops toward the center of the Earth

THEORY -------> Gravity



FACT -------> when you run electricity through a wire it gives off light and heat

THEORY -------> Electromagnetism



FACT ---------> planets watched over long periods of time display retrograde motion

THEORY ---------> Heliocentrism



FACT ---------> fossils are found in a nested hierarchy, organisms with similar caricaturists also have similar DNA in a nested hierarchy, changes in gene frequencies can add up over time producing organisms that are different from one another.

THEORY ---------> Evolution

So as you see it is a FACT that Evolution as occurred since we find the evidence all over and described by many different disciplines in science. The way all of these convergent pieces of factual information are explained is by a theory called Evolutionary Biology.

I also always laugh when creationists say they love and respect science, yet they attack Evolution by saying that Geology, Physics, Astronomy, and other fields of science are incorrect. Almost all of the time what I have found is that creationists will attack fields of science that have nothing to do with Evolutionary Biology. Like attacking radiometric dating (coming from the field of Physics that gives us nuclear power) or rock cycles (coming from Geology).

Science cannot say anything about the existence or nonexistence of God. That is called theology. So if a creationist claims that Evolution is atheistic then he is proving right away that he does not understand how science works. Evolution says nothing about God because it is a scientific subject that only addresses genetic changes over time and how they are explained using naturalistic explanations.

Personally I do not blame some Christians for being taken in by lies about what science is and how it works since I myself being a Christian love science and accept the process by which we make discoveries using our God given intelligence to explain thing based on only naturalistic causes. I just wish Christians in the USA would follow the lead of free thinking Christian around the world who accept science and do not support deceitful false prophets (creationists) who prey on the ignorant and make millions doing it.

Answer 7

All things in science which explains a process are actually called theories because as right as they may be, they are always tentative. Some of these theories are right enough to use in the design of things like cell phones, computers, and the likes, but we may be overlooking some detail, we may only be partially right about something, and there may be things we simple don't yet know. For example the theories on the model of the atom have changed a bit over the years. The concept of an atom existed since ancient times and has evolved from being thought of as the smalled single clump of matter, to an un-solid cloud of charge, to a solid nucleus with negative charge around it, to a nucleus of sub-atomic particles with electrons orbiting it like planets, to a nucleus of wave/particles with wave/particle electrons around it in the form of standing waves.

These are all theories right up until the last one, and there will most likely be additional incarnations to the model of the atom, but all of them were close enough at the time to exploit the properies of the atom. We know enough about them to create atomic bombs, manipulate them into fancy materials with extraordinary properties, and make complex instrments such as electron tunneling microscopes.

There is always room to learn in science.

By the way, the Earth isn't round. It's a spheroid. It's general shape is spherical. It's exact shape changes.

Answer 8

Gravity is a Theory.... does this mean Gravity only works when you call it a fact? Come on.... Theory just means they don't know exactly how it works on ALL levels... but they do know it works.

So which Theory of Gravity do you hold to? The magnetic force of the earth itself? which is usually what we are taught in school. Or that it is the rotation of the earth and our atmosphere that holds us to the earth? Both? Neither?

There are all kinds of theories, it just depends on which one you feel is more valid.

Answer 9

Theory is not the four letter word that it is often thought to be.

99% of science is theories. You have different levels of theory. Evolution is considered to be a fairly sound theory.

Please see the link below - the first three paragraphs say it all. To summarise it in a nutshell, science uses the word 'theory' in a much different way than your average guy on the street does.

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory#Science

"In scientific usage, a theory does not mean an unsubstantiated guess or hunch, as it often does in other contexts. A theory is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a related set of natural or social phenomena. It originates from and/or is supported by experimental evidence (see scientific method). In this sense, a theory is a systematic and formalized expression of all previous observations that is predictive, logical and testable."