I agree somewhat, but not entirely. To a scientist, a theory explains existing facts and predicts new ones. However, it is still not a fact. Theories by nature must be falsifiable (some type of discovery or test must be possible to prove it untrue) but accepted theories while not having been proven false by experiments and other discoveries are still not know facts or true. They are still only accepted theories pending falsification. I will agree that an accepted theory is a coveted state for a hypothesis, but a theory is not. Many theories have been proven untrue and many accepted theories will be proven false in the future based on future knowledge.

I do find it most interesting that many theories are considered fact based on lack of disproof only and not on repetitive tests by numerous scientists in the field. In some cases, a scientist will test a new hypothesis against available data and when the hypothesis cannot be disproven, will declare it a theory. Scientists trust other scientists and do not repeat all experiments. A scientist who declares a theory and cannot disprove his theory based on his published experiments will generally be believed and most scientists will not bother to repeat the experiment (unless it disproves another accepted theory) until the experiment gets repeated as a part of another experiment and another theory. Sometimes when experiments get repeated when they form a basis for a new theory the original theory (that the experiment was based on) get disproven when the results are different. I also think that some theories are accepted simply due to Occam's Razor and maybe disproven in the future.

*G* For a little laughter today:

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/occams_razor.html




>>I very much agree though, that is is important to recognize that most of it is still only theory.
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>Tracy:
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>Theory is the best you can hope for in science. It is the most coveted state for an hypothesis. So when you say Theory it is high praise indeed.
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>Einstein's Theory of Relativity has been proven correct so far with some limited experimental data. It is a Theory because it can be arrived at independently, can be corroborated, can make predictions of things or events that come to pass, and it can be falsified. In layman's terms, Scientific Theory is the closest to the Facts as we know them that you can get.
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>As with any Theory, if new items come to light that disprove it (i.e. make it fail) and a new Theory comes out that better explains observations and can make better, more accurate predictions then it will supersede it.