Scientific Theory

This passage was written in the always-excellent Pharyngula, and is a very elegantly-phrased description of what the term Theory means in science and how it should be applied. Read it, and marvel at the ignorance shown next time a politician casually dismisses evolution as "only a theory."

Scientific theories are explanatory frameworks for integrating a body of facts. Evolutionary theory, cell theory, germ theory, quantum theory, electromagnetic theory, transition state theory, the theory of relativity — these are all theories, and they also represent accurate and useful descriptions of how the universe works. They should be and are taught as facts, provisional explanations that have been tested and evaluated and found successful. “Theory” means something very specific and powerful to a scientist — there is no creation theory to be taught or used, and especially, no creation story that has survived any scientific test.