>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 had a physics professor who said the "law of gravity" was only a theory because things have always fallen when dropped, but that didn't mean they couldn't start rising at any time. Go figure.

John