Differences Between Facts & Theories
- Facts are single pieces of information. A fact is a single event or thing known to have happened or existed, a truth verifiable from experience or observation, according to the Collins English Dictionary. If a fact repeats itself without variation, then the phenomenon can become known as a law. A law does not provide an explanation for why a phenomenon occurs; it only creates a generalization of existing facts.
- Confusion results from two different uses of the word "theory." Nonscientists use the word "theory" as a synonym for "hypothesis," usually an untested hypothesis. In this sense of the word, a theory is a possible explanation for a group of facts, but is only conjecture. An individual may idly construct a theory and provide a completely inappropriate explanation for a phenomenon; however, if the theory were tested, then it would quickly be found false. Until a theory has undergone some sort of testing, it remains conjecture.
- In the scientific sense of the word, a "theory" is a system of ideas held as an explanation for a group of facts, a hypothesis confirmed by testing or evidence. Scientists often use the word "theory" for phenomena widely accepted as true. The heliocentric theory of the solar system is the theory that the planets move in orbit around a central sun, a theory that has been verified repeatedly by empirical evidence.
- Scientific theories cannot pass into absolute truths without proof. Unfortunately, absolute proof only comes about in the field of mathematics where a particular outcome follows logically and necessarily from a set of idealized circumstances. No further evidence will ever change the result. In his 2009 book "The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution," Richard Dawkins writes: "Influential philosophers tell us we can't prove anything in science...the best that scientists can do is to fail to disprove things while pointing to how hard they tried."
- Most scientific theories have actually been proven beyond any reasonable doubt, but the potential exists that some future evidence will arise that contradicts certain theories. Scientists at the end of the 19th century widely stated that everything worth knowing was already known. The hope is that science will stand the test of time, but it would be arrogant in the extreme to believe that scientists and researchers have discovered everything about the universe.