Please Stop Saying This...

As a Christian and a scientist I sometimes find myself aghast at the ignorance on either the religious or scientific side(not necessarily saying they are opposing sides.) I would like to now clear up a misconception that many Christians have about the nature of science. Their misconception can be summed up by this statement, usually directed at evolution, "it is just a theory." Now I see this misconception coming mostly from the fact that those in question do not have accurate definitions for the words they banter about. I have heard it said that in science once a theory is "proved" enough it becomes law. This is not really the case. First let us look at what the definition of scientific(physical) law is.

Wikipedia Definition of Physical law (I know not the greatest source but in this circumstance it shall suffice)
To summarize a physical law is some observed(conclusively) phenomena. Let's start with something easy to understand and visualize gravity. We can see and demonstrate empirically that the phenomena of gravity happens. Now that is a Law. Notice we have not answered why it happens just observed that it does happen. (perhaps "how" it happens might be a better statement but you get the point.)

To answer the why(or how) question is where theory comes in.

Wikipedia Definition of Theory

So again to summarize, specifically the scientific portion, the theory is a postulated explanation that can be verified or refuted with the data gathered. Going back to the gravity example. Einstein's general relativity is a theory as to why gravity is observed, in this case a curvature of space-time due to mass. Now part of the theory is that it is predictive and is testable. Thorough testing of general relativity has taken place in the years since it was proposed by Einstein. Though still a theory it has a wide basis for acceptance.

If we were to refute an explanation because it was a theory we would be left with nothing. So when someone tells a biologist "evolution is just a theory" he will respond with "yes."

Confusion

So I had an interesting series of events last night. I watched the Rockies win in an amazing bottom of the 13th comeback and was informed that a close family friend died. It is strange when the otherworldness of a great sports comeback is suddenly put in perspective by the harshness of real life.

To be honest a good way to spend free time!

Ok sometimes at work when I am waiting for a reaction to finish or I have a few spare moments I browse the web. One of my favorite websites is www.physorg.com. Well the other day I had been in a rare bookstore and had come across a book in the science section about a CIP (Cook Inertial Propulsion) Engine. It is a book that basically states that Newton's Laws of motion were wrong and that this man has invented a new propulsion that he attempts to explain. If you want a good lesson in bad physics please read up on CIP. Well any who after leaving the bookstore I decided to look up more information on CIP and discovered some references to it in the physorg.com forums. After looking further I came across many threads involving really bad physics of people making huge claims followed by responses showing the inaccuracies followed by the initial poster calling them a name and then claiming to be like Galileo. Unfortunately it is not just enough to be persecuted like Galileo you also have to be correct in your assertion. Anyways the whole story is basically to say that I have found a great way of passing time. Here are a couple of examples of what I am talking about.

Thermodynamics!
Relativity!