Scientific Rules Of Evidence.

Although my field of expertise differs with the majority here, the principals of discovery should remain the same.
If you have a theory, and it is correct, you should be able to turn the results on and off with a specific set of circumstances applied. If you can't accomplish that- it's just a theory, nothing more.

I disagree.
In the lab where I work,we have failures day in and day out. There are lots of theories as to why the failures occured. However until the failure can be turned on and off, you have not found the root cause of the issue. Once you can turn it on and off, by finding the circumstances and proving that these are the cause through testing, your theory is just that.
Evidence is the manupulation of the circumstance with repeatable forcastable results. Then and only then is it a fact.
Tell me Ned- for years the constant speed of light was supposed as fact-yet Harvard has been able to speed it up, slow it, stop it, then release it. Is the speed of light still a constant? Was the theory of it's constant speed through space and time True? Now that it is known that the speed of light is indeed able to be manipulated it brings every quotient using the speed of light as a constant back into question.
Can I turn gravity on and off? No I don't know how- but that in no way translates that it cannot be done. Just that I am unaware of how to do it. Maybe it can, maybe it can't, but no one here can anwser that. Blackholes appear have intense gravity, but no one knows why-they have theories. If Gravity is constant-why is the moon escaping earths gravitational pull a few inches every year? If everything is in decay as is believed, they should be getting closer because of the gravitational pull, right?[This message has been edited by James J, 09-23-2003]