[asa] fact vs. theory

An atheist in my discussion group wrote the following. Any comments? It doesn't seem right to me to say the heliocentric model is a theory, not a fact. I think his (unstated) point is that evolution is a theory, but it is still very solid just as the heliocentric view of the solar system is only a theory.

...Bernie

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He wrote:

I'd like to point out the difference between a scientific fact and the English word 'fact'. The geocentric model was never a scientific fact... just as the heliocentric model is not a scientific fact. These are both scientific theories. The scientific facts are the measurements of planets' movements in the sky relative to the earth.

"facts" are the measurable and repeatable data points. These don't change, though the error bars for the measurement get smaller and smaller as we get more sensitive equipment.

"theories" are the constructs that generalize the thousands of facts that have been observed. They "fill in the gaps" between the measured facts, and allow us to predict where we can measure future facts to verify or repeal the theory. Much of the data facts that we observe initially have large error bars which often lead us to wrong generalized conclusions. Once the data is refined with better or more measurements, we often will modify the theories with more specific ones (Newton's Laws of Motion --> Einstein's Relativity).

Only once we had telescopes did we have a sensitive enough measurement device to measure the precise movement of the planets in the sky. It was these more accurate (smaller error bar) facts that allowed us to see that the heliocentric model was more correct than the geocentric model.

In the English language, we call the heliocentric model a "fact" because it's a scientific theory that has so many scientific facts to support it ... which is another way of saying true beyond a reasonable doubt. In the English language "fact" = Truth. In science, "fact" simply means a data point with a certain error bar. A "fact" in science is not all that meaningful (at least compared to a theory). But, facts don't change; theories do.

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Received on Tue Feb 3 11:23:35 2009