re the fact of the theory jim and andy both have it incorrect i believe the facts are what is there the processes that exist in the present or the physical evidence of the processes having occured in the past these facts exist with or without a theory the theory tries and explains the facts and how they relate to the rest of the physical universe in a manner that is both coherent and useful that it can be used to make predictions the facts of gravity evolution electromagnetic radiation relativity atoms will exist and behave in the way in which they behave regardless of whether we have a theory to try and explain how they interact or even why a theory never really becomes a fact but a theory can predict the existence of a previously unknown fact and if we find this fact as the theory predicted we say the theory is supported by the facts a theory is a mental construct a speculation a model if it is a good model it may be useful in science a theory is something that is supported by the evidence considerable evidence sometimes all of the evidence a hypothesis is a new fledgling theory because there is not yet enough evidence to support it when a new hypothesis is proposed to replace an existing theory it must explain all of the facts that the current theory explains and at least some of the facts that the current theory could not and or predict new facts it is so simple i m surprised that this subject gets beat to death about once a month a quick glance in a dictionary would clear up of the confusion and bandwidth in this newsgroup then we could talk about really important things like why do men have nipples david utidjian utidjian remarque berkeley edu
