> This is simply how science works. You form a hypothesis, test it vigorously, and if you and thousands of other colleagues don't find anything to disprove the hypothesis, it becomes a theory. And "theory" doesn't mean "guess". HYPOTHESIS basically means "guess". "Theory" means "guess that has been tested over and over and over and has been found to be accurate to the limits of our abilities to test it." But the point is, you really can't ever claim "certainty". But you *can* approach certainty with arbitrary precision.

> It's not an example of scientists actively trying to sweep something under the rug that they can't explain. It's scientists scrutinizing some experiments that seem to "prove" some fairly wild claims and finding the experiments to be lacking in some way. As the saying goes, extrodinary claims demand extrodinary proof.
>

I like your explanation of scientific process, and how hundreds of minds working independently in one area will eventually shed light on certain aspects of a phenomena (if it is indeed real). And we should recognize that this process takes time -- usually decades, if not centuries in some fields. Science is an empirically-based, truth-seeking process which *slowly* winnows the wheat from the chaff to glean out kernels of factual truth. The slow way is the sure way to build up the storehouse of knowledge. Scientists must not make claims for achieving perpetual and eternal truths during this empirical process.

I know what you're getting at when you define "theory" the way you have, Dave, but I'd prefer to define it more precisely. "Theory" does NOT mean "guess" or "speculation" or "imperfect fact." In its original scientific sense, a Theory is a framework for interpreting facts, and for formulating general laws, principles, or causes for something already known or observed. This is why, for example, we shouldn't refer to evolution as a "theory" but as an established evolutionary MECHANISM whose mode of transmission is well known (through the changes in genetic alleles which vary in a population. Allelic frequencies cause some people have brown eyes and be very short, while causing other people to have blue eyes and be very tall, and so on.) [I know you know all this stuff already, but I'm only saying it because it's the best example.] We're far beyond the point of "guessing" about this mechanism. We know it exists. So the term THEORY is no longer appropriate for the fact of evolution, except when referring to the various models that attempt to explain *HOW* life evolves. Because of our ability to genotype living creatures -- not dead fossils, but creatures that are alive currently -- we know for a fact that all living organisms present on earth today have either arisen from earlier, or currently related, forms during the course of earth's long history.

Personally, I think of it as the magnificent web in the code of life that God has stretched across the entire planet. We are all distant cousins with every other living thing, and with every blade of grass. As the way it should be, since I believe God made us all, and everything; and instead of shame there is great awe and beauty to be found in examining HOW He created the world. Dave, I was under the impression that you may not "believe" in Christianity, but you're open to the possibility that there is a God? Okay, we can't prove with scientific rigour that God exists. But if there is some indirect empirical evidence, such as the apparent orderly design of the macro universe in the cosmos, are you open to the idea that that could have been intelligently designed? And I ask this. Why should Christians be fighting with the book of nature that God has writ in stone and flesh, both of which are observable on an empirical level? In dismissing evolution, I think we're dishonouring the more obvious evidences of Him and His *ongoing* work. The God of the Bible likes creating with matter. Even though we say God is Spirit, and outside of time, we're still free to examine those aspects of Him which protrude into the material and observable aspect of Creation.

[End of run-on rant on the example word "theory."]

Wolfspirit