Comment by Raymond Gellner on July 1, 2011 at 1:56pm

One of the biggest problems is that many people do not realize that in science, a theory is well supported by facts and data, unlike in casual discussion where people will often use the term "theory" as a guess or opinion.  This is the greatest failure in our educational system: the understanding of what the scientific method actually is.  

Comment by Morgan Matthew on July 1, 2011 at 2:07pm

Comment by Great Dane on July 2, 2011 at 6:04am

Exactly - well put. It is all about the evidence. Also liked the mention of pattern recognition - being an engineer that really makes sense to me :)

Comment by W. Shawn Refvem on July 7, 2011 at 12:55am

I think Theists of all religions believe in a blind faith. But the word faith can have a kind of open ended meaning to different people. Here is a quote from Bertrand Russell I think nails it, "Where there is evidence, no one speaks of 'faith'. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence." My view is that to really believe something is true it should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or scientific evidence.

Comment by Paul Prescod on July 7, 2011 at 4:38am

It was great until you said that "theory is a guess." I left a comment on your blog about that.

 

In everyday use, theory means a guess or a hunch, something that maybe needs proof. In "science, a theory is not a guess, not a hunch. It's a well-substantiated, well-supported, well-documented explanation for our observations.² It ties together all the facts about something, providing an explanation that fits all the observations and can be used to make predictions. In science, theory is the ultimate goal, the explanation. It's as close to proven as anything in science can be."

 

notjustatheory.com

 

Comment by Araina on July 9, 2011 at 2:11am

Great video.

Comment by Paul Prescod on December 8, 2011 at 5:04pm

Kir Komrik: I totally agree that a hypothesis is a bit like a guess.

But a hypothesis is not a theory. We don't say: "The Germ Hypothesis" or "Darwin's Hypothesis of Natural Descent." The word "theory" and "hypothesis" mean different things in science. In normal English they often mean the same thing. But we're talking about strict scientific terminology.

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