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Aren´t you tired of the incorrect use of the word "theory"

I work with people of all ages, but specially children, educating them about natural sciences.
More often than I wish, I see people using "belief", "hypothesis" and "theory" as synonyms and I´m starting to get tired of it. I try to keep it simple (because I´m usually with children), explaining that an "hypothesis" is an idea you propose as a solution for a question and that you need to test it, and that a "theory" is an explanation you have evidence for and, until now, no test has rejected it.
But, why I have to explained it in the first place? When and how did this confusion start?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Boothby171 on October 14, 2009 at 10:01am

I think that the answer you WANT is that it started with right-wing Christian fundamentalism and their varied attempts to discredit science so that their bullshit claims of creationism can be presented on a false "equal footing."

But that's just my theory...um, hypothesis.

Permalink Reply by Malena on October 14, 2009 at 10:09am

I cannot say I know personally any fundamentalist (maybe one crazy catholic scholar). I think they have very little with the start of this confusion (at least in my country), even when they are the ones to exploit it the most.

Permalink Reply by Malena on October 14, 2009 at 11:39am

I´m not so pacient. I sure that it has something to do with the fact I never have to deal with creationists yet. Once I have a evangelist woman who didn´t want to know anything about ancient mummies even when she had one in front of her, but that was all.
I always do an effort to make children understand that theories require facts. I usually use the alternative hypothesis of the KT extintion for that (children know everything about dinosaurs, usually more than me!).
This year we are talking a lot about Darwin, so I´m making an effort to explain than evolution and "the theory of evolution by natural selection" are two different things.

Permalink Reply by Mike McCreary on October 14, 2009 at 1:03pm

My $0.02: remember to tell your creationist friends that all good scientific theories are the best explanations selected from a set of theories. Creationists are locked in on one theory and one theory only, and do not bother to evaluate competing theories properly.

Permalink Reply by Malena on October 14, 2009 at 6:02pm

Remember to tell them than Creationist haven´t overcome the hypothesis category yet. (And it´s a lousy hypothesis anyway) XD

Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on October 14, 2009 at 4:00pm

Mostly it's ignorance--club-swinging, woman-dragging-by-the-hair ignorance. They just don't notice the details of what makes these particular types of "an idea" different. The rest of it is active malevolence on the part of those who work toward a world devoid of rational thought--goodthinkers and duckspeakers.

Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on October 16, 2009 at 2:00pm