Why are so many people under the mistaken impression that evolution is a theory?

Question

Evolution is not a theory - it's a proven phenomenon. The THEORY of evolution is a theory which seeks to explain the mechanism by which evolution occurs in the natural world.

Evolution is reproducible in lab experiments involving short-gestation organisms such as fruit flies and evolutionary theory has exhibited enormous predictive power, leading to the discovery of many species, including tiktaalik roseae.

For all of you who just bypassed the question completely - evolution has actually been witnessed. It does occur. The particulars of where and when and on what scale it has happened or does happen can be argued ad infinitum, but the phenomenon does occur. Evolution is not a theory. (Neither are gravity, electricity, or relativity - although they are explained by theories.)

kveryeffective -

I don't much care whether you want to call the result of fruit fly experiments "more fruit flies" or not. It demonstrated speciation - and most people would consider another species "another life form".

I'm really surprised just how much this topic confuses people. I mean, if you break it down, a theory - in the scientific sense or not - consists of things such as ideas, explanations, or human understanding. I would have thought this would be easy for people to distinguish from natural occurrences, phenomena, or "facts".

Answer 1

People also don't realize that, realizing how our understanding of the universe changes as we learn, they stopped calling anything a "Law." "Theory" is as strong as it gets.

But, yes, you are right, evolution is fact. The theory part is in working out some of the details of the exact mechanisms involved. The previous poster who mentioned gravity chose a great example, but perhaps a stronger one than needed.

We have no idea of HOW gravity works. However, no one denies it's existence.

Answer 2

I don't know where you went to school but you are wrong.

Your fruit flies yield more fruit flies it didn't yield another life form.

"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other, yet to be discovered." Stephen Jay Gould
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_fact-and-theory.html

So take a breath there are issues with evolution but as it stands with our current understanding evolution is the best explanation going at this time.

For those of you thinking that evolution proves there is no G-d or those who try to prove creationism to prove their is a G-d you are in the wrong area that kind of arguement doesn't belong in science.

Answer 3

A theory (as used in a scientific context) does not mean that something is not true or is in doubt. A theory is a cohesive, integrated explanation. A theory is an explanation of how something works. A theory is more than a fact. not less.

Arguing that evolution should not be taught as fact because it is a theory is as ridiculous as arguing that teaching music by explaining pitch and scales and chords and rhythm and tempo shouldn't be done because that is music theory.

Answer 4

Why is this in politics???

Also, simply observing evolution as a natural phenomenon, which I know happens, is not the same as tracing the origin of the species. Just because fruit flies mutate does not mean we came from monkeys. There is A LOT of room for error...

I believe the phenomena known as "evolution" occurred after the creation of the world when man suffered two catastrophic events, the Fall of Man and the Flood. With the Fall of Man, sin entered the world as well as death. With the Flood, there was a massive environmental change in which the sun, for the first time, shined down on the earth without earth's protective layer. The combo between death and procreation, plus the harshness of the new environment, have lead to the mutation and species divergence that scientists mistake for "evolution".

Answer 5

When people start ranting about evolution and the Bible. I say, "God believes in evolution." It usually makes them think, at least for a little while. Genesis and Darwin are talking about two completely different things. They don't contradict. The world is more than 7000 years old.

Most people who reject evolution, do so due to religious beliefs. They don't seem to realize that the argument that "the Bible is indisputable fact, because the Bible says it is indisputable" is circular logic and is not a valid argument. The Bible has a lot to say, but it does not really address how life actually began on Earth.

Answer 6

The real problem is that science education is so bad here that people don't understand what the word "theory" means in a scientific context.

After all, electricity and gravity are "only" theories as well.

In science, however, a theory is an extremely well-supported notion - one that makes predictions that have been repeatedly verified. It is about a certain as anything can be in science.

Answer 7

Well, evolution is a theory, but, having said that, evidence, all evidence, in the biological sciences supports the occurrence of evolution since it being proposed. Really, unless one had a time lapse camera recording the last billion years or so, evolution is next to impossible to "prove", though, any thinking person familiar with the natural sciences, knows evolution is valid and really indisputable!

Answer 8

In the real world things do not just come together with out intelligents making it happen. You can take all the watch parts that were ever made put them in a container and roll them around for as many billion years as you like but you will not get a working watch.

Answer 9

for the same reason that geologists use the phrase "theory of universality" which means that the geologic principles we observe today occured before we existed.

People were not there to verify the data, hence evolution remains a "theory" in that sense.

Answer 10

The theory would be the origin of the species, not evolution.