Evolution is only a theory (and therefore not a fact).?

Question

I'm taking a physical antropology class right now, and my teacher said

"Evolution is a theory but it is also a fact. In the natural sciences a theory is the means by which we work to explain and understand the facts that have been accumulated. A theory is actually above a fact in that it allows us to understand the significance of facts. Gravity is also a fact and a theory. The theory of gravity explains the facts as to why things fall to the ground just as evolutionary theory explains how and why life forms change over time."

is this true? i thought evolution wuz only a theory. how is it a fact?

Answer 1

Because it explains much like you said so many questions, or how else would you explain the Galapagos Islands?

Answer 2

I dont want to get spit upon, because some people become very  irritated if someone doesn't have the same mind set as them....I'm going to say that I am a Christian. I believe in being saved by grace through faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ...

Evolution is definitely NOT  a fact! A fact is a term for something that has been proven.

Evolution has never been proven. To this day, they still change their time lines and guesses on materials that they discover.

They have all these gaps in their theorys that dont add up.

Evolution is a theory. A theory is an educated guess.

They are not sure if their methods are true. They just rely on supposedly "smart" people such as Charles Darwin and that bum Karl Marx.(face it, if you know history, Marx was a bum)

In a way, Evolution is now portraying themsleves as a religion...sure..they deny that...but your believing in something aren't you?

You can even go as far as an Atheist being a believer that there is no God.

We all believe in something.

But I seriously do not believe I was created as an OOPS...I am not an accident (that is what evolutionists say)... but,I was created for a purpose, a reason...everyone is...

*******Please, for any of you who read this:

Do not be harsh for the things I believe. If you can have an opinion, then I can have my opinion too....thank you :D

Answer 3

Hit the library shelves and consult the Oxford dictionary?!

Answer 4

The word evolution is used to mean different things.

It is often used to mean simply natural selection (darwins finches, sickle cell, bacteria, etc).

Or as above - it can be defined as change in allele frequency.

But none of those things can explain how fish turned into reptiles, or reptiles changed into birds, or any other large scale change.

It can explain the origin of new species. For example lions and tigers are different species yet can interbreed, and are descended from a common big cat ancestor.

The word 'evolution' is also used to mean goo-to-you evolution. But this requires a massive net increase in genetic information. The proposed mechanism is mutations. yet all observed mutations are information neutral or lossy.

Natural selection is observed and is a scientific fact.

Evolution of one kind of animal into another is a hypothesis and is not observed and is very controversial.

The evidence is stacked against it. There is no mechanism for creating new information. The fossils show stasis and extinction - not change.

Check here for some good articles on Natural Selection

http://creationontheweb.com/content/view...

And ask your teacher for some examples of evolution which are not just natural selection!

Answer 5

Evolution is a fact.  Natural selection as the explanation is a fact as much as it is that the Earth isn't flat.  New SPECIES radiating out of older species is a FACT.  Intelligent design is distortion of logic and data to see what you want and burying your head in the sand.  It has no basis is science at all and simply confuses people who don't understand the subject.

Answer 6

Your teacher is correct, theory and fact.

Look up the definition of 'theory' and you will understand.

Theory is misused as opinion or supposition or idea or belief; it means none of those things. Theory has requirements and must be based upon empirical evidence, make prediction with which it can be subjected to peer review and, if possible, be proved incorrect.

This why evolution is sound theory and creationism has never been and will never be a...'theory'!

Answer 7

from my understanding  facts are put together to create widely accepted theories. a fact in itself is always dispustable and this is more philosophy than anthropology, thus theories are always dispustable. there isn't really a finite truth, if you will. it is much like eugenics was a theory but later proved to be based upon false facts, thus a faulty theory

Answer 8

Evolution, the change in allele frequency over time in a population of organisms, is an observed and still being observed fact.

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the theory that by many converging lines of evidence explains evolution.

You teacher was right and to say, " only a theory " shows that you need to hit the books and learn the hierarchy of scientific concepts.

Goes in this order; from least to greatest.

Fact; law; hypothesis; theory.

That's the point you people can not seem to get, joe'sgirl. We do not have an opinion, we have the evidence.

Answer 9

Laws are observed phenomenons that occurs consistently and universally. (Example: Newton's First Law of motion F=ma)

Theories are ideas or hypotheses used to explain these phenomenons. (Example: Theory of Relativity)

Laws describe HOW something occurs, theories try to explain WHY it occurs.

Using the example of gravity:

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation describes HOW objects of mass are attracted to each other.

Gravitational force as an explanation of WHY objects of mass  are attracted to each other is a theory.

Theories can be tested, if an explanation (theory) is found to be false, it is amended or discarded. However, no matter how much evidence backs up a theory, it is STILL a theory by definition, not law.

As for whether theories are facts:

Theories can be considered facts if they are supported by existing evidence and can be tested.

In the case of evolution, there is plenty of evidence and you can even test the theory on prokaryotes in a microbiology lab.

Thus, unless a properly conducted experiment results credible evidence that DISPROVES evolution, it is considered a fact.

For future reference, denying a theory and disproving a theory are two different things. XD

Answer 10

Evolution is a theory. Many people in the West think it's a fact, many people in other parts of the world think it isn't.

People have definitely not observed evolution from one kind of thing to another. That doesn't disprove macro-evolution, though; and micro-evolution has been observed, small changes between individuals that are still basically the same type of thing. (The term species is a useful human construct but I'm deliberately avoiding it here.)

Gravity, in my opinion, is a theory explaining a lot about how things move. Einstein significantly improved our understanding of it, but even he didn't know everything. Chances are, he didn't get it completely right, and facts may turn up that point us to a new or improved theory.

And many cultural anthropologists don't believe in facts. They won't even try to show that their conclusions are 'true', prefering the word 'valid'.

So I think your lecturer is putting forward his/her own view and you may just have to live with it. It's interesting that he explicitly puts theory above fact. It should be the other way round: evaluate theory with facts, not facts with theory. You could challenge him on this. It's fundamental to the sciences.

Answer 11

"Fact" is a word seldom actually used by scientists. The lay person thinks of a fact as something definite and unchanging but the world of science is a dynamic place. We can only know what we know and we might know what we don't know but we don't know everything that we don't know and so, everything is somewhat tentative.

Generally, instead of classifying something as a fact, scientists will classify it as a weak theory or a strong theory or something somewhat inbetween. Gravity is a strong theory, but believe it or not, we know more about evolution than we do gravity.

So evolution is as much of a fact as a fact can really be, and that means it's a fairly strong theory, but the model of evolution is not a complete one and most likely never will be. There is a lot we still have yet to understand and there are likely things we will never find the answer to. This is true of most things in science.

Answer 12

It's a fact in the sense that it's true.

The people who say it's "just a theory, and therefore can be dismissed" don't know what they're talking about.

Many words have specialized meanings in science. When you and a friend are discussing another friend's hard-to-understand behavior, and you say "MY theory is...." you're using the term in a different sense from the concept of a sicentific theory.

In science, a theory is an intellectual structure, that makes sense of a big hunk of reality. That's the sense in which evolution is theory -- the theory of evolution explains the diversity of life.

The meaning  of 'theory' in the sense of "theory of evolution" is not "ONLY a theory" but a very powerful set of ideas; in the case of evolution, the evidence is overwhelming and from widely varied sources.

Your teacher is correct.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

probably has a discussion of this idea.

Answer 13

correct...its not true..

Answer 14

You're teacher is correct!  And most of the people on this page are wrong!

Evolution is both a fact and a theory.

First let me explain the difference between a "fact" and a "theory."   A fact is something *observed* to be true.  (And notice I said observed to be true, not "proved" to be true.  Anyone who says that facts are "proven", is also misunderstanding "facts.")

A theory is an *EXPLANATION* for facts.   So is a hypothesis.  But a theory is an explanation *WITH EVIDENCE*.  

Thus a theory can never become a "fact" (or law), and a law can never become a theory.  EVER.

It is NOT about whether it is "proven" or not.   NOTHING is proven in science.  There are only observed *facts*, and *explanations* for those facts (theories).

---

With that in mind ... evolution is both a fact and a theory ... because the word "evolution" is commonly used in two ways.

When many people say "evolution" they usually mean the *PROCESS* by which life forms change over generations.   That is a FACT.   It is something we observe in nature, can reproduce in the lab, and in fact we've been relying on this change-over-generations for centuries ... every time we breed cows, racehorses, cocker spaniels or championship roses, we are taking advantage of the *FACT* that life forms evolve ... they change over generations.

The second meaning of the word "evolution" is as a shorthand for "the theory of evolution."   This is the EXPLANATION for the FACT of evolution.   In other words, this is the explanation for WHY evolution occurs in nature.  The reigning theory of evolution is Darwin's theory of natural selection ... things evolve because nature is a competitive environment ... so the best competitors leave more offspring ... so the species *changes over generations* (evolves).

Your teacher's example with gravity is exactly right.   The *FACT* of gravity is that things fall to the ground at a certain rate.   The *THEORY* of gravity is the explanation of this in terms of a "force of gravity" that pulls matter together.  So the word "gravity" is both a fact and a theory ... the word "gravity" is the name given both to the fact, and to the explanation of that fact (the theory).  There is no contradiction.

Ultimately, theories are the Holy Grail of science.   Observing facts (and deciding when they are universal enough to be called "laws") is important.   But science is ultimately not just about facts, but about finding *EXPLANATIONS* for facts!

That is why anyone who utter the words "just a theory" has just hung a big sign on their forehead that says "I know NOTHING about science!"

Answer 15

Given the way that many people misuse the word 'theory' (as in "only a theory"), it's probably clearer and more accurate to refer to the Law of Evolution, just as we speak of Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Gravity.

Answer 16

What i think is Evolution is a fact based theory wherein you can get small facts woven unto to give a big theory that is quite acceptable.

Answer 17

In science "Theory" doesn't mean "guess." It does mean "explanation."

The scientific method requires one to gather facts and develop a theory (read "explanation") that fits the facts.

Consider this example: You look out the window and it's still raining. It's rained for a week. The door opens and a friend walks in. He's wearing rain gear and is soaking wet, dripping water on to the floor. he remarks it's raining outside.

Your theory, based on observed facts, is that he's been out in the rain. As you can see "explanation" also fits where the word theory is used.

Now here's where things get sticky. Can you prove your explanation? Couldn't the fire sprinklers in the hallway have been on? Couldn't someone be playing a joke on you? These can't be ruled out.

Now about "Laws." Consider Newton's 3 laws of motion. They can be reduced to mathematics and work the same way each time. As you can see, the theory of the guy in rain gear doesn't work that way. He could walk in tomorrow and be dry. Theories are explanations and when the facts change, the theories must be discarded or changed.

Take the tooth fairy. Years ago your theory was a supernatural being came into your room, snuck the tooth out from under your pillow and left money in it's place. As you grew older, your theory changed as you got more facts. Years ago evolutionary theory identified chimpanzees as our closest cousins. They used blood chemistry to refine the link. Then came DNA and we learned we were 99% (or 95% as some count) alike. Evolution has been around for 150 years. No basic tenet has ever been disproved. It is being continually refined.

Go back to the guy in the raingear. Would you believe your explaination or listen to someone that tells you the water was migically created and in a miricle, your friend was both created and doused? Worse, what if they poked fun at you and told you your explaination has all theses things "wrong." That pretty much sums up the creationist side of the issue.

Kippling wrote about a small village that voted the earth was flat. I'd love to make Pi equal to 3, change the speed of like to 1,000mph and repeal the law of gravity in certain areas. That's magical thinking and fatal to being a critical thinker.

Answer 18

Hello Dami.  Do you not know that there are no facts and very little, if any truths in Anthropology. Any real facts, the ones which give the conflicting accounts regarding evolution, and the length of time man has walked the earth have all been suppressed, with contradictory evidence being dumped and swept under the carpet in the hope that it will go away;  new discoveries are unwelcome to those who's careers are tied to the orthodox theory. To many young students today accept the unacceptable as fact..