Isn't evolution just a theory that remains unproven?

Answer 1

Evolution is a scientific theory. It is important to qualify the theory as 'scientific', because when people use the word theory in 'normal' conversation, they mean a hunch or a guess. Scientists have a word for that. In science, this type of intelligent guessing is called a hypothesis. A scientific theory, however, carries much more importance. Scientists do not lightly assign the term theory to an idea. There are many experiments and observations by many scientists over a large span of time.

Every idea starts as a hypothesis in science. Then the hypothesis is tested by many people for a long time (decades in the case of evolution). During this time of testing (which in the case of theories is always ongoing), if all of the evidence agrees with the hypothesis, the hypothesis graduates to a theory. However! Scientists are skeptical people and they will not be satisfied unless they CAN DISPROVE THE THEORY. Yes. Scientists do everything in their power to prove theories INCORRECT! They have been unsuccessful proving the theory of evolution wrong and as such the theory of evolution remains the champion theory for the amount of supporting evidence.

The reason that scientists call it a 'theory', is the same reason that scientists call gravity a theory. The cell theory, for example, states that all cells are the basic unit of structure in every living thing, but scientists cannot test every living thing to check to see if there are, indeed, cells in every living thing: Living things have been around for a long time and the larger amount of them have died; not to mention the fact that there is more life on this planet than could be studied by all of the 6.5 billion humans combined; there is also the chance idea that life could be elsewhere in the universe. However, there hasn't been a living thing so far, that has been found that wasn't composed of cells. Just like there hasn't been a case where gravity hasn't caused an invisible pull between two celestial bodies. The same is true with evolution. For example, one of the driving forces of evolution is natural selection. So far, the most critical scientists have been unable to observe any living thing that is immune to the effects of natural selection.

In short, the 'Theory' of evolution is as factual as the theory that your body needs nutrients as an energy source for survival. Is it true in all cases... so far the evidence says 'yes'. To understand more about scientific theories or evolutionary theories, I have included two websites: http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.html - for evolution. http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/appendixe/appendixe.html - for scientific theories. Simply copy and paste one of these addresses into the address bar to learn more.