Evolution was taught to me as a fact?

Question

I believe was just WRONG! It is NOT a proven fact, it is just a theory, NOT fact. What do you think

I mean, it was taught as a fact IN School

Answer 1

you are correct my friend
but watch out you will have some nice response's here

Answer 2

It's taught as a fact in schools for simply the same reaon that it is taught that the Earth is not the center of the galaxy. If you read the Bible, you could come to the conclusion that the Earth is the center of the universe, that the Sun rises and sets "around the Earth", making Earth the center. The concept that the Earth isn't the center of the universe is a theory.

Something being a THEORY is much more than a hypothesis. Theory doesn't mean "guess" as many preachers would have you believe. A THEORY is about as close to immutable fact that science gets these days. Science calls very few things "laws" or "facts". Nuclear fission is "only a theory", but we use it to build power plants and nuclear bombs. Quantum mechanics is but a group of theories, but we use it to make the solid state lasers that make DVD's possible.

So, when the preachers start telling you that Evolution is "ONLY" a theory, that simply shows their ignorance as to what the word "theory" actually means. A theory is a hypothesis that has been shown to be so reliably true that it is accepted as a working model. Evolution has enought evidence to support it, throughout the fossil record and by examination of the variety of species on Earth to conclude with reasonable certainty that it is the way things happen.

Some preachers will tell you that it's stupid to think that life came about by random chance; that the idea that life happended because some random electrical currents brought about life from some swampy pool. Again, they are simply showing their ignorance about evolution. Evolution doesn't attempt to explain how life came about; merely how it propogated and changed AFTER it became established.

Evolution, as a theory, is proved. Perhaps not in it's entirety; we don't know every single link of every single species, but we do know a great number of them. We certainly know more about evolution than most people know about their own family trees

The studies of genetics, fossil records, dating techniques and other methods have done nothing but to further confirm and clarify this theory. The only real attacks on it have been from those with agendas; mostly from religious groups such as the "intelligent" design camp, whose ultimate goal is to try to prove that there is some "god" in charge of the universe.

The point of science is to explain what is, without basing research on an assumption that something supernatural exists. In science, God is a copout. You come to something you can't explain and say "God did it". Easy. It's much more difficult to start with no assumptions.

Evolution doesn't say that God doesn't exist. It simply refuses to take God as an explanation when there is sufficient reason to believe otherwise. If there were no transitional forms, if there were no measurable genetic commonalities, if there were forms of life that were based on different models; this sort of thing that could not be explained with the current concept of evolution might be reason to conclude that the model was wrong. The problem is that everything we see points toward, rather than away from evolution.

Answer 3

No it was probably taught as a theory. Do you actually know what a theory is in science? A theory is a hypothesis that has been supported by science and can't be disproved, but it can't be proven completely. Just like the theory of gravity. Scientists don't know what really causes gravity, but they have all the science to know it is there, and it works somehow...thus it is called a theory.

And the actual term "evolution" means a change in a gene pool over time. This is fact. there have been observed, recorded events of this happening. the theory of evolution is how humans came to be.

Answer 4

Evolution is both a fact and a theory. It is a bit complicated, but research will explain this issue a lot better than frustrated tantrums ever will.

There is no error in teaching evolution as a fact, because the fossil record entirely supports it. When someone refers to the 'theory of evolution', they are speaking of the exact mechanism that drives evolution, and scientists still aren't sure. This doesn't change the fact of the fossil record; it just means we aren't positive how the mechanism works that produced the fossil record. (To state it explicitly, a scientific theory is a framework mechanistic explanation for observed facts. Evolution is an observed fact, while the theory of evolution is the attempt to explain how that happens. We are already 100% sure that it does happen.)

To put this in perspective, gravity is also only a theory, because we don't understand the mechanism completely. While we can do experiment after experiment verifying the fact of gravity, we do not understand all the forces in action that cause gravity. Do you think gravity is wrong?

Answer 5

The existence of atoms is "just a theory" too. But atomic theory is so well supported by evidence that is it reasonable to accept it as fact and teach it as fact. In fact, this "unproven theory" forms the very foundation of science. Biological evolution falls into the same category. It is so well supported by all available evidence, in the absence of any other tenable theory, that it is reasonable to accept and teach it as fact. The fact that some people are ignorant of the evidence and afraid to look at it honestly because their pastor's personal guesses about the meaning of scripture conflict with the facts doesn't negate the fact that such evidence exists.

For anyone who would like a little factual information, here's a good place to start:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

.

Answer 6

In the same sense that gravity is a fact, evolution is a fact. In the same sense gravity is a theory, evolution is a theory. Scientific theories are those explanations (not beliefs) that are well proved, hypothesis on the other hand may or may not be true. You are confusing the two. There are litterally billions of pieces of evidence for evolution and only two chapters of the bible against it.

Answer 7

Evolution is a proven fact but also a theory-only the mechanisms are theoretical, not the fact that biological evolution occurs, although the word theory has become a straw for the creationists to clutch at.

Answer 8

You may be shocked to learn this but in science "fact" isn't really a term that has any meaning. Scientists brand things as either a hypothesis, definition, weak theaory, strong theory, or model...which may be a combination of the others.

To label something as a fact implies that it is non-disputable or can't be changed. In science, nothing is given this label because learning is a never ending process.

For example, our understanding of the nature of an atom has changed drastically over the past two hundred years. As has our understanding of the natue of light. Light went from being thought of as a particle, to being though of as a wave, to being thought of as something which has characteristics of both a wave and a particle.

Our understanding of things change sometimes.

What we have deemed to be strong theories, things we think we have a pretty good idea of, are often simplified for the general public and called facts to get the point across.

Answer 9

You are correct that many people learn evolution as a fact, which it is, but not to the extent to which I believe you are talking about. It is a fact that species evolve and natural selection occurs, but evolution cannot fill in some very important missing gaps, and therefore I think it is appropriate to also question what was the beginniing. There is a law article (link below) that goes into much about the legality of teaching evolution and alternatives, but better are some of the referrences, because they discuss the holes in evolution (which many scientists see). So, I would say believe in God, but understand evolution.

Answer 10

Dinosaurs used to exist, now there are only a few relatives living to this day. Proof exists in museums.

The wild banana is a brown pod which is harvested and has been domesticated over the last 15,000 years, and the banana is now a yellow pod.

Whales have digits. This proves that they were both water and land dwellers. They have evolved to the point where they can't crawl around anymore and are strictly water-based.

Any more examples? Oh, right. Mummies and petrified corpses of humans with obscure, yet visible, tattoos. Petrification takes hundreds of thousands of years to acheive, and the most intact corpses are found in glaciers, along with wooly mammoths and such.

The armadillo is the oldest mammal relative in the world. It is known to have armour, and the fossils of armadillos feature much larger shells, although the body is still the same size.

Answer 11

Then prove it's wrong, scientifically. Science class should be about learning facts and developing critical reasoning.

What you believe is irrelevant in science. What can you demonstrate?

Just remember, gravity is "just a theory", not a proven fact.