送交者: meteor 于 2005-3-04, 16:48:38:
回答: "进化不仅仅是“一种理论”? 方舟子也是逻辑不清! 由 Hah 于 2005-3-04, 13:28:39:
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_devore_theory_050303.html
At a fundamental level, popular English and scientific usage are at odds here. In popular culture, a "theory" is understood to be a guess or speculation that may or may not be based upon evidence and analysis. In science, a theory is "a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses." (Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science,National Academy of Sciences, 1998: 7). A scientific theory is the larger explanation of how the well-tested "laws" fit together to describe the natural world.
Dismissing evolution as "only a theory" is, at the simplest level, a misunderstanding of the meaning of "theory" in science. But, in the current controversy, discounting evolution as "only a theory" is more than a semantic debate. It’s a political statement at the heart of the attack upon teaching evolution in science classrooms in America.