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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tunica Albuginea who wrote (619)	9/16/1999 10:51:00 AM
From: Zirdu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

<If Evolution was a fact it would no longer be called a Theory. We would simply be taught " Evolution ". Just like we are not taught the theory of Gravity in Physics, but simply Gravity.>? I can't agree with this hang up or whatever that insists in calling evolution "only a theory", in contrast to physics, or gravity say, as a "fact." There are different theories of gravity, in the past, and even now. Before Newton, gravity was more or less a mystery. He came up with a theory that sort of explained it. At least he made it possible to calculate the effects of gravity. It was and is a wonderful theory. Now we believe that theory is slightly wrong. Einstein came up with an alternate theory of gravity, which is called general relativity. So far, it has passed every test given to it. It too is a wonderful and subtle theory, that explains a lot more than Newton's theory of gravity, while containing within it most everything that Newton said, as a limiting and special case. But Physicists now believe that General Relativity as a theory of gravity cannot be the entire and final truth. It is incompatible with Quantum Mechanics, for one. It contains within it infinite quantities, as in the calculations for the exact center of a black hole. There must be another theory, more complicated and encompassing than General Relativity, that contains within it both a general theory of gravity, and quantum mechanics. The best candidate so far is what is called string theory. So far, there is no consensus on such a theory. But even in physics, right now, Gravity is still very very much a "theory", and not a fact. Actually, I would say evolution, is much more "fact like" than "theory like." And I think of evolution as more of a "factual happening", than I think of gravity as a fact. Gravity is really a big mystery (and I am trained as a physicist), much more than the fact of evolution happening on this earth over the past billion years or so.