I thought this might be helpful to the many that somehow believe that the use of the word "theory" is derogatory. I’ve seen people in multiple threads discount evolution because it is "just a theory," and not necessarily respond well when given the definition of "theory." I just heard this tidbit by the same title on the radio series
Earth & Sky and thought it explained the issue well. Here's the transcript:
Just a Theory?
Scientists can never prove a theory is absolutely true. But they can come pretty close. How scientists learnnot by provingbut by disproving theoriesafter this on Earth and Sky.
DB: This is Earth and Skyon what scientists mean when they talk about "theories" and "truth."
JB: Michael Seeds is an astronomer at Franklin and Marshall College in
Pennsylvania. He says that scientists can never prove a theory with absolute certainty.
Michael Seeds: So you can disprove a theoryyou can prove a theory
is wrongbut you can never prove that it’s absolutely right. But you
can confirm a theory over and over and over. You can confirm it so
many times that you gain so much confidence in it that you say, this
surely must be true, the Earth really does go in an orbit around the sun.
That has been confirmed so many times, it must be true.
DB: You might hear someone dismiss a scientific theorysuch as the
idea that humans are contributing to global climate change. They might
say, "Oh, that’s just a theory."
Michael Seeds: . . . when I hear that, I know that the person saying that either doesn’t know what a theory is or is taking advantage of public misunderstanding to criticize something that they don’t want to deal with.
So climate change, for example, or ozone depletion have been confirmed over and over and over and we know it’s happening. We’re not sure exactly why, but it’s very well documented and very well understood.
Earth & Sky
Thursday, June 24, 2004
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