After being modified, scrutinized, and tested a hypothesis may make proceed to the next step which to be considered a legitimate scientific theory. That is, it becomes a theory that satisfies all of the requirements of the scientific method outlined above. Hopefully by now you realize that a scientific theory is definitely not a guess or “mere” speculation. This, in fact, goes to the crux of the “It’s just a theory,” comment. When scientists refers to a theory they generally mean a scientific theory which, as we’ve just demonstrated, includes a host of stringent constraints. On the other hand those who wish to belittle a scientific theory imply by the comment that a scientific theory is nothing more than an unsubstantiated, wild guess. Unfortunately many people don’t realize that a scientific theory is much, much more than a guess and are cruelly deceived.

So far, go good but there’s more to come. We still haven’t covered what is a scientific law nor have we addressed the real concerns philosophers has expressed about the scientific method. In order to explain what is a scientific law we first have to investigate the final stages of scientific theory development. Namely, what is a convincing scientific theory?

A convincing scientific theory is a scientific theory that has stood the test of time. That is, the amount of observational evidence supporting the theory becomes so voluminous that it becomes overwhelming. This is obviously a subjective judgment and to some extent varies from theory to theory but in practice the judgment is usually obvious.

A good example of a convincing scientific theory is Newton’s theory of gravity. Few today question its convincing nature. For over three hundred years Newton’s theory has described the motion of projectiles under the influence of gravity, explained the motion not just of the planets and other debris in our solar system but also the motion of other stars and even galaxies, described the motion of falling bodies, successfully predicted the motion of satellites and other space vehicles to name just a few successes. Again and again predictions from Newton’s theory are successful. Clearly Newton’s theory of gravity is convincing scientific theory.

Pages:
«« previous page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 next page »»

Tags: Evolution, religion, Science

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under Evolution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

this article with others.