WHAT IS A THEORY?

Ed Pearlstein
"Only a theory" is what creationists like to say about evolution. And that seems
to carry greeat weight with some people.
Such people don't understand what that word means to a scientist.
As used in science, "theory" does not mean the same thing as it does in everyday
life. A theory is not a guess, hunch, hypothesis, or speculation. It is much mo
re full-blown.
A theory is built upon one or more hypotheses, and upon evidence. The word "buil
t" is essential, for a theory contains reasoning and logical connections based o
n the hypotheses and evidence. Thus we have Newton's theory of gravity and the m
otion of planets, Einstein's theory of relativity, the germ theory of disease, t
he cell theory of organisms, plate tectonics (theory of the motion of land masse
s), the valence theory of chemical compounds, and theories of evolution in biolo
gy, geology, and astronomy. These theories are self-consistent and consistent wi
th one another.
Construction of good theories is a major goal of science.
Yes, a scientific theory can be wrong, as shown by experiment or observation, si
nce one of its hypotheses might be wrong or the reasoning might be flawed or new
data might come along that disagree with it. Or its validity might be limited (
as are some of those listed above). So in science, a wrong theory gets modified,
discarded, or replaced. This has happened, for example, in physics with the cal
oric theory of heat and the theory of the luminiferous ether, and in chemistry w
ith the phlogiston theory of combustion.
In physics, which is my field, theories such as classical mechanics, thermodynam
ics, and electromagnetism are thought to be on excellent ground in both evidence
and reasoning, but each of them is still "just a theory". Other theories, such
as in cosmology and elementary particles, are still being developed, and do get
changed as new evidence and reasoning come in. The fact that theories are subjec
t to improvement is the great strength of science.
Supernatural creation is not a theory, but a hypothesis. Considered in a scienti
fic sense, it has a fatal flaw: it is sterile. If someone asserts that there is
a creator-god, one can ask "So what?" Nothing follows from it; it leads nowhere.
Some religions have additional hypotheses, such as: only one creator-god, a gre
at flood, the sun standing still, a virgin birth, a trinity, a resurrection, the
efficacy of prayer; but no one of these is logically demanded, or even suggeste
d, by the others. They are just added on.
Anti-evolutionists sometimes say that evolution has not been "proven". In a stri
ct sense, no theory is ever proven in any field, with the possible exception of
pure mathematics, since new data might come along that require a change, and the
re are always details that haven't been tested. Sure, there are things not yet u
nderstood about evolution, as in many other fields; but that is why scientists d
o research! I have encountered the statement - meant as a put-down - that scient
ists don't know everything. Well of course not, but we expect to know tomorrow m
ore than we know today.