Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Theory vs. Hypothesis


Many people do not understand the difference between a hypothesis and a theory. Nothing pisses me off more than hearing "Evolution is just a theory!" The word "theory" in regular speech is not to be confused with the scientific term. A theory in science is a hypothesis that has been tested over and over with strong evidence suggesting it's correct but none to prove it incorrect. A hypothesis, however, is an educated guess that you test by doing experiments. Gravity, for example, is still technically a theory, but no one seems to be arguing about the legitimacy of that. I guess it's because no one ever wrote a book saying that God doesn't want us to believe in gravity.


“If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction.”

-Judith Hayes

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