What IS a 'theory' ? an 'intelligent assumption' ? a 'worthy guess' ? ?

Question

Perhaps if its so easy to make up insane b/s about anything out there, simply because you hold a PhD or not - anybody could let boredom get the better of them and spend the remainder of their life 'making theories' ? yes ?

okay, for example - 'big bang theory....string theory....dark matter theory' yes we'll stick to the subject matter of space,time, matter etc

its almost as if people forget the obvious point, that its a THEORY not the FACT ! :p

for example, I have a theory that the entire universe is made up of an ever growing un-measurable (infinite) number of cheese corn puffs.

What ? whats wrong with that ? so my theory sucks but the mentally insane guys who came up with 'string theory' are okay ?

hey, what about spagetti theory ? teddy bear theory ? perhaps the universe is made up of our farts, ever thought about that ? the more we release gas from our anuses, the more the universe expands.

" Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only be transfered from one form to the other " heh.

So in theory, a theory is a 'stab in the dark' - you have a small chance of being right, although really the entity who has all the rules/states of everything and anything, and the definite answer aka 'the creator' (God if u wanna call him that) probably lays there practicing a few yo-yo tricks whilst laughing his jacobs off @ our puny little brains TRYING...ooo trying sooo uber noobishly hard to figure out something obviously TOO BIG for our brains to ever unravel or understand. The universe :-)

Here is MY THEORY

the most clever 'dude' ever (he just somehow created himself from his cleverness, perhaps a cheese corn puff played a part - but a special cheese corn puff) aka 'the creator' created all this and created humans with just enough intelligence but not enough, to figure it all out.

So what does he do till the end of time ? (our time not his, he lives on for ever. Cheese corn puffs baby) he watches us build little space ships and rockets and bombs and act like little ***** noobs. Gosh, I i've typed a bloody lot.

hmm, where was i, ah yes - so what.....a 'Theory' ??

Answer 1

The one thing you clearly haven't researched is the real meaning of theory in the scientific world. Weird, since you seem to like it so much.

First of all - in _any_ reasonable context, a "theory" doesn't represent gibberish or random nonsense. It's ""an explanation based on observation and reasoning". This means you can't simply make up whatever you wish to have something called a "theory".

Second point - much more devastating for your "theory": the word means something different in science.  Let me quote wikipedia:

"In science a theory is a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise verified through empirical observation. For the scientist, "theory" is not in any way an antonym of "fact". For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theories commonly used to describe and explain this behavior are Newton's theory of universal gravitation (see also gravitation), and the general theory of relativity."

So the "theory of evolution" or the "theory of gravity" have absolutely nothing to do with your random nonsensical "theories". They are both scientific theories - systems of using knowledge- made by the scientific system. This means that they have been made by observing the facts and thinking logically. They are the complete opposite of " a stab in the dark".

Please, do some reading on the scientific method to discover what it's really about - because you've made absolutely no valid point in your post at all.

Answer 2

A theory unifies a group of facts into a coherent whole.

An intelligent assumption is one based on a sound logical process that does not necessarily have current facts to support it but they may very well exist.

A worthy guess is based on experience. It does not have a theory or a logical basis but springs purely from experience.

The universe is complicated because it is a group of simple systems that interact with each other. The simple systems are easy to understand. What gets complicated is how they interact. We don't need to understand the "Cosmic All" to understand how the universe works only the simple systems. i.e. We have to eat the elephant.

Answer 3

level three.

Answer 4

Theories have a thesis. whats your thesis on the corn puff universe.

   The theories such as the big bang and string are derived from facts and can possibly be proven when the technology is available. to make up a theory with no scientific proof like for instance your cheese puff theory is to tel you the truth, Ignorant.

So what would you rather us do not try to discover the universe and just leave it all up blind faith you know god is also a theory. he cannot be pprovinor unproven are you saying that he is made of cheese puffs? If you are i don't care that's just your uneducated theory. I personally don't believe in god. well Im done have a nice day.  

Answer 5

Confusion about the use of the word "theory" exists because there are two main definitions of the word that conflict with each other.

The fundamentalists mean it in the sense of something not proven yet.

Scientists use it in the sense of something that is generally accepted to explain why things are the way they are or how they came to exist the way they are, or how things work.  The word that scientist usually use to mean what the fundamentalist mean is "hypothesis".  In science a hypothesis must be a TESTABLE hypothesis.  Since there is no way to test religious beliefs, they don't even qualify as a testable hypothesis.   So Intelligent Design is not only NOT a theory, it is also not even a testable hypothesis and never can be.  And consequently never belongs in a science classroom.

Unfortunately even scientists get sloppy and violate their normal use of the word when they talk about "string theory", which is not even a testable hypothesis yet.

A scientific theory is never PROVEN.  You should only use the word "proven" when you talk about mathematics and logic.  They use what is called a priori reasoning and use proofs to determine things.

In science you have to observe things to determine what is correct.  This process is called verification and uses a posteriori reasoning in addition to a priori reasoning.  So when you test hypotheses you are verifying them.  You are not proving them.  But often people get sloppy and use the word "proof" in place of "verification".  So when a religious person claims that science theories are not proven, in a sense they are correct.  But they don't understand that scientific theories are not proven but rather verified to be correct.  And scientific theories are always open to improvement is later observations demand a better hypothesis.

Hope this helps you understand the misunderstanding that exists over the use of the word, "theory".

Answer 6

A theory is a proposed reason for why things happens or what is happening. It has been enforced by evidence. It is still a theory because it can be revised to be more encompassing. Most theories will never be more than just a theory because nothing can be proved for certain. They have, however, held up to generations of nonbelievers runnings experiments to refute them.

Answer 7

A theory is an explanation that has yet to be proven but has passed some tests that suggest that there is a high likelihood that it is true.

Answer 8

I think dborn56 hit the nail on the head. I love your questions. You have my sense of humor. You must like my answers, because you have chosen me as "best answer" three times.  I agree completely w/ what you said.  People take the word "theory"..and put a large amount of relevance on it...I think some really believe it is another word for "fact"...it is not. Theory's are interesting...some theory's have several years of study behind it...but will in many cases (remain) a theory. h**l, some facts even get disproved by a new theory. There is vast knowledge in the universe, and we will never be able to comprehend it all in a lifetime...and we don't live that long to begin w/.