Scientific Theory For Dummies

I'm sure there are a lot of threads on the nature of science, scientific theory, scientific inquiry, etc. But after years of discussing these things, there are still long time members that show little understanding of how scientific theory works.The frustration doesn't end in this forum. Out there, scientists like Shermer and Dawkins who have taken upon themselves to educate the public also run into the same frustration that we do here. The general attitude seems to be that people are too ignorant to understand how science works or that they are too attached to their religious beliefs.People tend to get caught up with scientific jargon. Everytime someone asks something about science, he gets hit by long montrous posts. I'm a reading addict (I read several books a week) and even I get a headache looking through those posts.I started this thread with some hope that we could explain what a scientific theory is without bringing out the jargon. The purpose of this thread isn't to discuss how we should explain science to dummies. The point is for us to discuss what a scientific theory is in a language simple enough that can't be obfuscated by dummies. I've chosen specifically the topic of scientific theory because after years of discussing these issues I've noticed that most people out there don't have a first clue what scientific theory is. Most seem to think it's comparable to religious doctrine.If this PT goes through, I'll start by explaining what scientific models are and their unrelatedness to doctrine.Edited by Taz, : No reason given.

I'll get back to you later this afternoon. Go to church now.

I edited it. Added by edit.

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I just noticed that I am now as popular as Admin. Woohoo!Edited by Taz, : No reason given.Edited by Taz, : No reason given.

Sorry for abandoning my own thead. Family emergency. Boarding plane soon. See you guys in a few days!

Don't get me wrong. I blame both sides.I remember in high school I was a math tutor. Back then, I was in AP calculus and was getting ready to take the AP exam. There was a girl that came in who needed help in pre-algebra. Another tutor took the job. I used the time to do my homework, so I didn't pay attention at all until later on when I began to pick up a slight tone of annoyance from the tutor of that girl. So, I started paying attention. Apparently, the girl couldn't understand why if X + 1 = Y and X = 2 then Y = 3.I know, you laugh now, but for those who are mathematically challenged, such a simple problem could be the worst stumbling block in their lives.After trying unsuccessfully for some 10 minutes or so, I offerred to help. I approached this by asking what the girl didn't understand. She said she understood X = X, but how did that get to X = 2? It just didn't click for her. Then I remembered my teacher once telling us about the same problem he once had with a student. So, I decided to use his way of explaining this puppy to this girl. I told her that X is just a place holder, just like her name. Her name happened to be... argg I can't remember her namer right now. Let just say it's Ashley. I told her that Ashley was just a place holder for the person. Her middle name could represent her just as well as her first name.Amazingly enough, it worked. She understood algebra when I started to relate it to real life.And no offense to anyone here, but the first few posts in this thread show exactly the problem that I was trying to say. Those aren't explanations for dummies. They're just the same complicated jargon shortened to less number of sentences. I don't think I explained myself well enough.I'm not just complaining about the lengths of those monster posts. I'm also complaining about the language that was used.For example, let's look at the simplest definition of evolution. Most people on here would say something along the line of the change in allele frequency over time in a population.I admit to being guilty for having used something along this line to answer the question. But to people who aren't familiar with science at all, what the fuck does that even mean? Then complicated posts are composed to explain what allele frequency really means and how it is related from concept to the real world. 20 posts later, people are now arguing over whether President Bush believed in evolution or not. Actually, this one it is you who are confused. I know of no scientist that has tried to disprove the existence of god via science. Don't confuse science with logic. When Dawkins talks about the existence or non-existence of god, he's talking from a philosophical/ logical perspective.It is when creationists try to use god as an explanation in science that scientists begin to point out that science is completely neutral in regard to the issue of existence or non-existence of god. Not what I'm saying at all.

My apology for having been silent in this thread this long. Time has been a rare commodity for me.I would explain scientific theory in the following way. Note that I don't have all the answers and that the following could just as easily be bollocks.In life, we often run into unexplained things. I remember watching one episode of Arthur on PBS. I was bored. The episode was about Arthur's little sister wanting Arthur to explain to her why people keep growing hair throughout their lives. Arthur said that he had learned it in school but was too complicated for her to understand. So, his little sister, who was 5, decided to come up with a theory of her own.She supposed that inside a person's head there are rolls of threads of hair and that the rolls would unroll throughout the person's life. When an adult went bald, it's because he ran out of hair threads.That's a little person's attempt at coming up with a model to explain an unexplained phenomenon.We all can expect this little girl's explanation of people's hair growth would change dramatically as she grows.That said, science is very similar to that. Different phenomena are observed. Scientists would try to come up with a model to explain how these phenomena exist. As more and more data come in, the theory is refined.Religious doctrine, on the other hand, is completely different. Mr. X claims divine revelation that told him Y is true. Therefore, Y is true for all eternity.Hope that helps.Edited by Taz, : No reason given.

Let me ask you something. Let say that you write an essay to be read by by someone else to your entire school. Would you rather you and some people you trust catch all the grammatical errors before the paper is read to your entire school or would you rather your paper be read with all the errors?In the real world, a good company is a company that scrutinizes its products to find out if there is anything majorly wrong with it before the products go into the market. A defective product could mean the end of the company.This is why I am currently very annoyed with all the fake products like the ipods and touchphones coming from China. The Chinese philosophy seems to be to make the crappiest, cheapest product possible and through a combination of scamming and false advertising try to make the most amount of money out of the product as possible.That's what creationism boils down to essentially. This is why those of us who have worked in academia can smell pseudo-science from a mile away.In real science, we try as hard as we can to "break" our own work just so we don't look like a fool when someone else break our work. Those couple of researchers who "discovered" cold fusion back in the 70's couldn't even sell used cars afterwards.