Re: Okay, what the HECK is going on in France?

And you keep cleanly missing the point. Let me try to spell it out slooowly for you....

From the Oxford Dictionary:

theory . noun (pl. theories)... 

I'm typing this slowly because I know you don't read very fast...

The Oxford Dictionary is a Great Book. But like all Great Books, it does not apply in every case. This is one case where it does not apply.

In a scientific context, to be a theory it =must= be testable. This is the way scientists use the word. This is what scientists =mean= by the word.

Words can have more than one meaning. This trick is used by people who want to sow confusion (and sometimes inadvertently used by people who are already confused). A less formal usage, or usage in another context, of the word "theory" does have the meanings you quoted from the dictionary. Using one meaning in a context where another meaning is called for gets one into trouble very quickly. For an illustration, simply mis-use the word "love" the next time you're on a date.

Religious fundamentalists are doing this with the word "theory", getting people to use it to mean "idea" in a context where it means "testable idea". You have been caught in the snare. It is not a "theory" the way scientists use the word, although the word itself associates itself with science and that's how the deception begins.

2. Intelligent Design, like it or not, right or wrong, is just as valid a "theory" of the creation of the universe as ANY other "theory" that has been postulated to date.

As I said above, it is not a "theory" at all. But suppose I reword it as:
"2. Intelligent Design, like it or not, right or wrong, is just as valid an IDEA ABOUT the creation of the universe as ANY other IDEA that has been postulated to date."

Let me then ask you, what makes an idea "valid"? What ideas would be invald?

In the end, NO explanation of the birth of the universe is going to hold up under the scientific method, since we can't "test" any of these theories.

We can test them by looking for the results they predict (for example, a ratio of muons to positrinos of at least 17:1 if the Little Noodle theory is correct, or a proton half-life of three weeks if the Super String Gordian Knot theory is correct). When experiments show that the proton half life is more than five billion years, the Super String Gordian Knot theory gets tied up in knots. When twice as many positrinos are found than muons, the Little Noodle theory goes the way of all pasta. Those theories are thus shown to be false.

Since you (and others) are advocating that only
verifiable truths be taught in "science classes"...


Only one poster suggested that, and that person was wrong.

How does one address the unknowable in science class... 

One does not.

One addresses the unknown. One figures out what is actually knowable about the unknown, and one tries to test that.

Science is hard. Nature is tricky. Don't be fooled by the Bible or the Koran - they are not a science books.

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.
.

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