“It’s just a theory,” dismissively, even derisively uttered often accompanied with the phrase “not a law“. How often have you heard that remark and why does it frequently evoke such strong emotional responses? In fact, just what is a theory and what is a law?

From the beginning mankind has been curious about the world and his place in it. Speculating about the universe and his place in it has provided mankind with unprecedented dominion over the Earth and its resources. However in order to be successful mankind’s speculations must somehow be validated.  

Mankind’s speculations have been validated via a variety of means such as experience, divine revelation and observation. The most recent and historically successful validation method is science. The pursuit of science has created a modern sustained technological society which has revolutionized mankind’s place in the world.

So successful has science been in explaining and quantifying the world around us that every nut, crackpot, partisan, and fanatic it seems wants to wrap their speculations in the mantle of science in order to acquire some legitimacy.

This attempt at acquiring legitimacy by appealing to science has become ubiquitous. So much so that the faint hearted desperately seem to need the validation of science for their beliefs even when scientific validation is inappropriate. This is one of the realms where the “It’s just a theory,” comment is uttered so frequently. But what exactly do they mean by this comment? By implication it seems that what they mean is some wild, unvalidated speculation which should be dismissed derisively.

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Tags: Evolution, religion, Science

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