RE: [asa] fact vs. theory

Steve- very interesting link to talk origins- thanks much!

Excerpt:
" Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty."

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of skrogh
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 9:05 AM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: RE: [asa] fact vs. theory

This is an instance of it being both a fact and a Theory, like gravity or
evolution, which is what he is getting at.

Heliocentric Theory best explains the facts (the observations made
indicating the planets orbiting the sun such as retrograde motion of other
planets, etc) A scientific theory, is always referred to as Theory, even
after confirmed by observations. It is the all encompassing explanation of
the observations (the facts). Your atheist is being pedantic, just trying
to explain the differences in scientific terms and not the vernacular, which
is all well and good. See http://www.toarchive.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html

Steve
=========================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On Behalf Of Dehler, Bernie
> Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 10:23 AM
> Cc: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: [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
>
> - - - -
> 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 12:21:35 2009