Why is it scientifically unsound to form a theory that cannot be disproven?

Question

This is a question for my biology homework and I dont think I am understanding what it is asking....

Answer 1

Because we already have enough religions.
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Answer 2

A theory needs to be testable.

The way you test a theory is to let other people try to disprove it. If there is no test that anybody can imagine that would disprove your theory, then it is not testable ... and thus it is not scientific.

This comes from the basic notion that it is never possible to *prove* that a theory is True. All you have is evidence ... not proof. If your theory explains the current evidence, that makes it a very good theory ... but there is always the possibility that (a) some evidence may be discovered tomorrow that your theory does *not* explain; or else (b) a better (simpler) theory may be devised tomorrow that explains the same evidence.

So since we can never really know for sure if something is True, the next best thing we can do in science is to eliminate the False theories.

Answer 3

It is asking why theories should be falsifiable. In other words, "there is a porcelain unicorn floating around in deep space in the infinite universe" is not a scientific theory. One reason is that it is impossible to test whether it is true or it is false.

The purpose of scientific progression is to propose a number of possible explanations for something and then - through examination, investigation and experimentation - narrow the possibilities to a handful (one, if possible). In order to do this, one has to be able to eliminate the potential explanations that are inconsistent with what is observed. If a proposed "theory" cannot be shown to be untrue then it cannot be eliminated. That may sound like a good thing but it doesn't get us closer to the "truth".

Hope that makes sense.

Answer 4

Scientists make observations to test hypotheses. If there is no possible observation which would prove a hypothesis false, then how do you know whether any particular observation supports it?

Hypotheses must be USEFUL. That is, they must make predictions about what will be observed--and what will not be observed--if they are true.

If I hypothesize that gravity is operating in my living room, then I can test that hypothesis by repeatedly dropping a hammer in my living room. My hypothesis predicts that the hammer will fall to the floor every time. If the hammer ever fails to fall to the floor, my hypothesis is falsified (disproved).

But if the hammer falls to the floor every time, my hypothesis is strongly supported (not *proven*, but supported; there is always the possibility, however remote, that next time the hammer will float up to the ceiling). This observation supports my hypothesis precisely because there exists a potential observation which would disprove it.

But if I hypothesize that God created life, how do I test that hypothesis? If God is intelligent and omnipotent, then he can do literally anything. This hypothesis makes no predictions which can be tested, because *any* observation is compatible with the hypothesis.

Precisely because there is no possible observation which can disprove my hypothesis, there is no way to tell whether any particular observation supports it. And that removes my hypothesis from the realm of science.

(That doesn't mean it isn't true, simply that it is beyond the limits of scientific investigation.)

Answer 5

It is important for science to be objective. That means that if you do an experiment, someone else following the exact same steps must be able to produce the exact same result. When that happens, ideas move from hypothesis to theory and gain more and more acceptance.

If you have an idea which is impossible to prove or disprove, though, then there is no way for anyone to check it and no way for any sort of agreement to occur about it. Since science isn't TRYING to be complicated and there's no way for these ideas to become accepted, scientists just refer them to philosophers, theologians, or other kinds of people who don't use the scientific method.

If it can't be demonstrated in some way, it's not science. Hope that helps!

Answer 6

because it is a theory therfore it is not fact leaving it open to be proven wrong

Answer 7

you need to be able to offer evidence to either prove it or disprove it, or its not science, its just guessing, or making things up.