gcomeau wrote:MAD-4A wrote:A Bazooka Joe bubblegum comic is "more scholarly" than Wiki.
So you're NOT going to tell us what this "more scholarly" source was then? Is it some kind of secret?
Edit: Oh FFS... you got it from an article on about.com written by a high school biology teacher.
MORE SCHOLARLY???? About.com??? Good grief.
How about we try a real scholoary source. I trust the National Academy of Sciences will satisfy your thirst for scholarly credibility?
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11876&page=11I suggest reading the entire page. But the important part would be this... you may recognize that it looks awfully similar to what we have been trying to tell you here:
The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence.
Many scientific theories are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them substantially. For example, no new evidence will demonstrate that the Earth does not orbit around the Sun (heliocentric theory), or that living things are not made of cells (cell theory), that matter is not composed of atoms, or that the surface of the Earth is not divided into solid plates that have moved over geological timescales (the theory of plate tectonics). Like these other foundational scientific theories, the theory of evolution is supported by so many observations and confirming experiments that scientists are confident that the basic components of the theory will not be overturned by new evidence.
Note.. .all of the above still remain Theories. Not Laws. Earth circles the sun? THEORY. Our bodies are composed of cells? THEORY. Plate Tectonics? THEORY.
They do not get "graduated" to Laws when we become really sure of them.