Re: possibly OT: NYT article on GA creationism/evolution debate

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

>  -- Speak of the laws of evolution, rather than the theory
>     of evolution.  To scientists it means the same thing, but
>     lunatics will have a harder time twisting the meaning.
>     Note that we already speak of the law of natural selection
>     and the laws of heredity.

I believe there is actually a slim distinction between law and theory.  If
you look at examples of the usage of the word law, it is generally applied
to something that you can quantify by an expression and gives a
relationship.

For example Boyle's law, Charles's law.  These are actually not valid for
all pressures and temperatures.
Similarly Newton's laws are relationships, which are more generally valid,
but are not absolutely universal.

However the theory of relativity is not a law.  A theory would be a complex
model designed to explain a variety of phenomena and sometimes may be more
universally applied than a law.  As such theories would sometimes be used to
explain laws.  For example kinetic theory is used to explain the gas laws.

These distinctions certainly can break down, but I think that as a general
principle they provide a reasonable guide to usage. As such those things
labeled laws have never been labeled theories.

Hypothesis would then be what one makes on the basis of a model or theory.
As such it is a specific prediction, and can not be considered to be either
a law or theory, nor does it turn into either of these.  These terms have
grown by usage, and are not as strictly defined as "scientific terms".

In the example given above the law of natural selection may not be a
mathematical relationship, but the laws of heredity are.  The gene model is
the theory which has been constructed to explain the laws of heredity.  The
law of natural selection is part of the theory of evolution.

Human beings by nature like to place things into categories, so I doubt that
it is possible to get rid of this terminology.  We need to recognize that it
exists and deal with it.  We also need to let our students know that these
words are not always precisely defined.  Finally lets rip the phony
definitions out of the texts we use.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX