And nobody except you has ever claimed differently.
- Facts is what is happening in the physical world. Rain, earthquakes, continents moving, species evolving etc.
- Theories are our description and explanation of these facts.
Theories are man made. Facts aren't.
I will copy what I wrote earlier:
Setst777, there is a misunderstanding. Let me explain.
You confuse the phenomenon with the explanation. You confuse the territory with the map.
In the real world things happen. It rains, continents move, planets orbit the Sun, populations adapt and evolve.
These things happen in the real world.
- Therefor we can speak of rain as a fact.
- Therefor we can speak of continental drift as a fact.
- Therefor we can speak of gravity as a fact.
- Therefor we can speak of evolution as a fact. (Though I prefer to describe evolution as a process, but that is beside the point.)
The theory of the hydrological cycle (evaporation, cooling down, condensation) explains and describes the fact of rain. It has always rained and it will always rain. It rained before we understood how rain forms. And if our understanding of the hydrological cycle were wrong, it would still rain, independent of our understanding of it. Since both exist, we can speak of rain as a fact that is explained by the theory of the hydrological cycle.
The continents move. We have a theory of plate tectonics that explains and describes these movements, but the continents did move before we understood these and independent of our understanding. Continental drift causes earthquakes, these were observed long before a theory (continental drift) explained this. So we can speak of moving continents as a fact and continental drift as a theory.
Same deal with gravity that causes planets to orbit the Sun. The movement of the planets is a fact. The theory of gravity describes and explains this. By the way, gravity is much more complex than just “when we drop things they fall.” For a full understanding you need the General Theory (that word again) of Relativity.
I hope you see the pattern by now. The fact (the process) of evolution is what happens in the natural world. The theory of evolution is our description and explanation of it. Which can be flawed. But is, at the moment of writing supported by a huge amount of evidence and one of the big unifying theories in biology.
Facts and theories are not mutually exclusive. Facts are what happens in nature, theories are our attempts to explain the facts.
If anything is unclear, please don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. I, and I am convinced a lot of other people, will be very glad to answer any question genuinely asked in good faith.
And later in this thread:
Do you understand the difference between facts and theories? Do you understand why both are not mutually exclusive and do you understand why your previous comment was wrong:
“Evolution has not ever been observed anywhere, which is why evolution is not a scientific fact; and so, evolution is a theory.”
Different people here (Me, Warden of the Storm, Hans Blaster, Essentialsaltes) have been explaining to you the difference between facts and theories. And why we speak of both the fact of evolution -- the gradual changes of species-- while we also speak of the theory of evolution -- the description of the mechanism that drives the here before mentioned changes.
Don't pretend that act as if we believe facts and theories are the same. For the difference has been explained multiple times to you.
Everybody here has been emphasizing the difference between both and you act as if
* none of his has been said
* we are the confused ones.
A careful reader will judge otherwise.
