Originally posted by Agent Smith
This is what I got on theory;
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ries
Etymology: Late Latin theoria, from Greek theOria, from theOrein
1 : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
2 : abstract thought : SPECULATION
3 : the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art <music theory>
4 a : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action <her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn> b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances -- often used in the phrase in theory <in theory, we have always advocated freedom for all>
5 : a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena <wave theory of light>
6 a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an unproved assumption : CONJECTURE c : a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject <theory of equations>
synonym see HYPOTHESIS .
For your sake I will refer to the evolutionary theory as evolutionary conjecture or evolutionary hypothesis.
Basically, the dictionary definition 5. is what scientists view the theory of evolution to be. You may have your own opinion, but that is not a scientifically defensible one.
To be more complete about this, however, since you are not a scientist, and are apparently not very familiar with scientific matters, I would point out that the common terms "law", "theory", and "hypothesis" have the following usages in scientific context:
A "law" in the scientific usage is:
1) a necessary or defining assumption. (Example: Newton's laws of motion,
Fourier's law of heat, Newton's law of friction, etc.)
2) an easily identified pattern of observed behavior, usually expressed
as a mathematical relation (Example: Kepler's laws and other empirical
curve fits, the periodic table of the elements, the geologic column)
3) any other fundamental assumption derived from our observations
and experiences.
(Example: the laws of thermodynamics, the assumption or principle of causality.)
Theory and Hypothesis both are operably
the same thing:
A description of a physical system bearing the property that it makes predictions that can be tested (i.e. it can have its range of validity delimited if the predictions don't come true) through observations or experiments. (Note, that an "experiment" need not be laboratory affair. It may just as easily be an "expedition" into the field, or a reexamination of previously collected data.)
Sometimes the tested hypothesis will still carry the handle "hypothesis" for historical reasons. (Example: In seismology H.F. Reid's "elastic rebound hypothesis" for the generation of earthquakes.)
Theonly distinction between hypothesis and theory is that hypothesis indicates a scientifically testable conjecture, whereas a theory operably allows the organization of known observations, and the prediction of results from new sets of observations.
In the case of evolution, the pertinent laws are:
1) law of taxonomy
(apparent relatedness of all organisms
both living and extinct in a nested
heirarchy)
2) law of faunal succession
(the observed nested heirarchical
structure of the fossil record)
3) change of allele frequencies
(genetic change in populations)
The notion of common descent with modification and natural selection (which characterizes all Darwinian-style theories of evolution) ties those laws together.
So powerful are 1), 2), and 3) that even a non-Darwinian theory, including such things as "intelligent design," should a scientific theory ever be developed for such a thing, must necessarily contain 1), 2), and 3). Thus, even ID will be an "evolution" theory.
