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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: tntpal who wrote (7002)2/16/2009 5:12:35 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 103300
 
Re: "evolution is a theory"

Correct.

But, then again... so is Gravity. (It's called "the Theory of Gravity".)

And Thermodynamics (The "Theory of Thermodynamics")

And the Theory that nuclear fusion powers the stars... and so too is the idea that you are a sentient being. (It's just a theory.)

However, in science, the word "theory" has a very special meaning --- FAR BEYOND what it does in ordinary English conversation.

To call something a "Theory" in science means that it is a well-organized and well-established comprehensive collection of smaller hypothesis... the whole of which has been rigorously peer-reviewed, critiqued and criticized and refined until it's predictions comport with the observed facts... most likely over very many years. (In this case, for over a hundred years now), and offer useful predictive validity.

Should any doubts remain... entire sciences have been spawned from The Theory of Evolution (Molecular Biology, Genetics, etc., etc.), and they serve to confirm the basic precepts every single day.

However... when convincing facts arise and are confirmed, which argue - (with testable propositions) - for alternative explanations of various details of a theory... or even the entire Theory itself....

Then the old Theory is re-worked to encompass the newly discovered and confirmed and tested facts... or else it is over-thrown completely (such as the previously widely accepted Theories that the Earth was flat... or that the Earth was at the center of the Universe... or that the space between the stars was filled with 'aether'....)

Scientific Theories stand on FACTS, or else they fall in the face of facts.

Re: "speculative drawings"

Fossils are NOT "speculative drawings". They are fossils. You can hold them in your hand. They are often found collected and tagged in museums (you might try looking sometime if you are interested....)