Law vs Theory
Offline I am so fucking sick of idiots who don't know what a theory is! I just told some idiot he was fucking retarded on another site for pointing out that a "theory" is indeed a fact and he said that shows I don't have enough science education. Once again a Christard said if it was true it would be a "law" rather than a "theory." I also directed people to this site but doubt they will come. I told him he either had less than an 8th grade science education or went to a Christian school. THis shit makes me feel like tearing my hair out! How do those of you who are actual science deal with this shit? And are the people puting out that garbage really that stupid or are they dishonest and spewing it to keep religion from dying out?
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
- Login to post comments
They're really that stupid.Trust me. I once used 'evolution is just a theory' because I honestly believed it
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Saying "Gravity is a theory too" and then start floating like the immortal superbeing I am usually works...
(Maybe not that last part though)
"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought
That's what I brought up - that's when the moron said I didn't know much science because "gravity is a law not a theory."
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Here is a response similar to what you are saying a theory is and isn't. This is a response from PZ Meyers Pharyngula blog about an article that portends to refute Darwin in 4 easy steps. here is the link
"Right off the bat, he makes the common error of assuming there is some universal authority that ranks scientific ideas into "laws" and "theories", with laws having some objective priority. This is not true. It's largely arbitrary. If you come up with a description of something that can be typically written out in a short and easily testable mathematical formula, it tends to be called a law: for example, Newton's laws, including F=ma, etc., or the ideal gas law, PV=nRT. Laws tend to be short and simple. This is not always true, of course (arbitrary, remember?): for example, Ernst Haeckel called his description of the relationship between development and evolution the Biogenetic Law, which has the virtue of being a counter-example that is neither mathematical nor in any way formally correct.
Theories, on the other hand, tend to be descriptions of more complex phenomena, and are often not easily reducible to a formula: for example, cell theory, germ theory, and the theory of evolution. They are neither more nor less true than a law, and a scientific theory is nothing like the colloquial meaning of "theory", a guess. Theories can also encompass many ideas that we call laws. Evolution, for instance, includes concepts like the Hardy-Weinberg Law and Dollo's Law."
The one area where you are wrong is that thepry is not a law, it is only a thepry. Jk bro.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Yeah, my Flying Spaghetti Monster-damn fat clumsy fingers. Being half drunk might not have helped. Glad someone fixed it though.
This is one thing that really bothers me. They act like they know more about science than me but if they said this to a room full of actual scientists they would resemble the guest of honor at a bukake party - or at least get laughed out of the room. Whoever that guy's science/biology teacher was needs to get smacked upside the head - unless he gave him the "F" he clearly earned.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Its good to see that porn has inspired a new way to present clever ad homs. I might have to use that some time.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Here's a site that explains it quite wee and simply. Of course the Christards will find some reason not to believe it, or not even read it.
link
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
law: describes the facts and observations
theory: explains them and why
got it.
another thing to bring to the table is that the word for a 'hunch or a guess' is actually hypothesis. if evolution was just a guesswork, then it would be called "The Hypothesis of Evolution". Maybe that will shut the theists up. should start a thread on that.
"The longer you live the higher you fly,
the smiles you'll give and the tears you'll cry,
all you touch and all you see,
is all your life will ever be."
-Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon.
As you are no doubt aware, a scientific theory is a (former) hypothesis that is supported by a mountain of evidence. A law can mean many different things, such as a simple observation (Moore's Law), a scientific observation that appears to always be true (Newton's Laws), or it can refer to the actual laws of physics and nature that we attempt to codify into our scientific theories.
Nowadays, scientists don't refer to theories as laws, because they are willing to make modifications when presented with new evidence. For example, Newton's Laws work some of the time, but not for things moving at speeds near that of light. Einstein came along and provided a theory that could describe motion at both normal speeds and relativistic speeds. So, Newton's "Law" actually turned out to be false, or at least only half-true.
Your definitions of law and theory are the first on the internet that I have encountered that I actually agree with.
Laws describe. Theories explain. Never in the history of science has a theory become a law. You got it right. The contraversey over this is ridiculous. People need to get educated and stop spreading misinformation.
I second HeyZeusCreaseToe: speaker of truth. Thanks.