Stephen Jay Gould on Fact and Theory
"Evolution as Fact and Theory" in Science and Creationism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 118.
Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories
are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty.
Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that
explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate
rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation
replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves
in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like
ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
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