Quote:
Originally posted by Sammie@Mar 8 2005, 10:11 PM
I hate to be picky, but this is a pet peeve of mine. You, like many people, have got it all backwards once again. . .
A "theory" is just a premise of a possible result or conclusion that has yet to be proven to be fact. You have to prove a theory to be a fact of life. It's impossible to prove a theory to be false because there are no facts to back up a theory. When a theory has been proven to be true, then it becomes a law (the law of relativity) or a fact. If a theory is proved wrong, it becomes a false assumption.
As it says in the dictionary: A theory is a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle, or body of principles, offered to explain a phenomena, a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation, an unproven assumption (conjecture).
Unfortunately, today we've accepted far too many theories to be fact while fact and reality are largely being ignored. For example, evolution is still a theory because it has yet to be scientifically proven yet in schools we're teaching it like it's a fact. Global warming is a theory yet Kyoto proponents would have us believe it's a fact, and so on, and so on. . .
So, let me repeat it once again: You cannot prove a theory to be false!!!
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Actually, a scientific theory is a hypothesis that is understood as fact through research. The theory of evolution has all the scientific research pointing in its direction. One of the requirements for hypothesis to be considered a theory is that it is proven through repeated testing and that the only scientific way to debunk a theory is to experimentally prove it wrong. I encounter a lot of people who disagree with the theory of evolution. Essentially, people who say "evolution is just a theory anyway" typically show they don't know all about the subject with that statement.
A scientific law is something observed with regularity. Gravity and physics are observed constantly, that is why they are laws.
Sorry, I'm a science major...I had to.
