ANTH 2301 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Theistic Evolution, Biological Anthropology, Continental Drift
16 Sep 2016
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Evolution is considered to be both a fact and a theory. The chapter goes into more depth about this, but since evolution cannot be rejected (due to measurable proof/evidence of species evolving over time), nor can it be tested, it qualifies as both. For a hypothesis to be classified as scientific, it must be testable, and the possibility must exist for it to be rejected. If a hypothesis cannot be tested, (not all of them can), then they would not be acknowledged as a scientific hypothesis. However, this does not give the hypothesis less validity, nor does it mean that we consider them to be true or false. The term theory means something very different from the term hypothesis, at least within the context of natural and physical science. Theory: set of hypotheses that have been tested repeatedly, and that have not been rejected. (hint: evolution falls into this category)
