Wolf Kirchmeir
Blind River, Ontario, Canada
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A theory never becomes a fact. It is an explanation of one or more facts.
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Tim Lewis
Narberth, Pembrokeshire, UK
A well-supported evidence-based theory becomes acceptable until disproved. It never evolves to a fact, and that鈥檚 a fact.
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Nick Canning
Coleraine, County Londonderry, UK
Many scientists, including the late Stephen Hawking, are happy to say that a theory never becomes a fact. It is always an interpretive structure that links facts, which are themselves reproducible experimental observations.
The 鈥渢ruth鈥� of a theory is determined by its usefulness in linking the largest number of facts and predicting new ones that haven鈥檛 been observed yet. Discovery of facts that don鈥檛 fit the theory will lead to the search for a new theory.
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Matt Chamings
Barnstaple, Devon, UK
This question misunderstands what a theory is in the same way that creationists dismiss evolution as 鈥渏ust a theory鈥�.
A theory isn鈥檛 speculation about what might be true. It is a set of propositions that seek to explain a particular phenomenon or set of facts. A theory can be tested and shown to be accurate or modified as the evidence requires. Even when a theory is accepted as fact, it remains a theory.
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Alan Harding
London, UK
While a scientific theory such as Isaac Newton鈥檚 theory of gravitation makes an infinite number of predictions, it can only be verified by a finite number of observations, so it can never be seen as irrefutably correct. In philosophy, this is the problem of induction.
The fact that science rests on rather fragile epistemological foundations opens it to attack from anti-science movements, for example when creationists claim that Darwinian evolution is 鈥渙nly a theory鈥�. All science is, to some extent, 鈥渙nly a theory鈥�, but its great strength is that theories that don鈥檛 fit real world observations are eventually discarded. This has happened with Newton鈥檚 theory of gravitation, now seen to be a special case of general relativity.
So in reality, in science we do not have facts or proof, all we have is the best-available, most widely accepted theory at the time.
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John Wallace
Liverpool, UK
Evolutionary pressures have favoured some organisms that are aware of their surroundings and able to react to them. Humans have become rather good at this.
We also have curiosity, which leads us to look hard at our surroundings and try to make sense of what we find. So, we gather information, and try to invent theories that could explain what we see. The better theories don鈥檛 just explain all the data so far observed, they enable predictions. If confirmed by data, this strengthens our reliance on the theory,
Take satnav systems, for example. These rely on the predictions of relativity and quantum theories. Every time a satnav system is used, the theories it was based on are tested again. But, until we know 鈥渆verything鈥�, theories, even the successful ones, will still be theories.
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