“Evolution is a theory in a special philosophical sense of science, but in terms of ordinary laymen's use of language, it's a fact, .. Evolution is a fact in the same sense that it's a fact that the Earth is round and not flat, [that] the Earth goes round the Sun. Both those are also theories, but they're theories that have never been disproved and never will be disproved.” FactsUseEarthLanguageTermSunSpecialTheoryEvolutionOrdinaryPhilosophicalRoundsFlatsLaymanUse Of Language Author:Richard Dawkins
“Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.” FactsEarthSunSocietyAtheismModernTheoryEvolution Book:What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline Source: What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline
“We debase the richness of both nature and our own minds if we view the great pageant of our intellectual history as a compendium of new information leading from primal superstition to final exactitude. We know that the sun is hub of our little corner of the universe, and that ties of genealogy connect all living things on our planet, because these theories assemble and explain so much otherwise disparate and unrelated information not because Galileo trained his telescope on the moons of Jupiter or because Darwin took a ride on a Galápagos tortoise.” IfsKnowsMindLittlesUniverseViewsSunInformationPlanetsTheoryMoonIntellectualFinalsCornersTiesSuperstitionsOur PlanetLiving ThingsRichnessPrimalTelescopesJupiterPageantGenealogyGalsNew InformationHubTortoisesExactitude Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“People sometimes try to score debating points by saying, Evolution is only a theory. That is correct, but it's important to understand what that means. It is also only a theory that the world goes round the Sun - it's just a theory for which there is an immense amount of evidence. There are many scientific theories that are in doubt. Even within evolution, there is some room for controversy. But that we are cousins of apes and jackals and starfish, let's say, that is a fact in the ordinary sense of the word.” PeopleWorldTryingMeanImportantSometimesFactsRoomsSunDoubtAtheismTheoryEvolutionAmountOrdinaryEvidenceRoundsPositive AtheismScoreImmenseCousinControversyApesScientific TheoryJackalsStarfish Author:Richard Dawkins
“Remembering that Eratosthenes of Cyrene, employing mathematical theories and geometrical methods, discovered from the course of the sun, the shadows cast by an equinoctial gnomon, and the inclination of the heaven that the circumference of the earth is two hundred and fifty-two thousand stadia, that is, thirty-one million five hundred thousand paces.” TwoEarthRememberCoursesHeavenMillionsSunFiveTheoryThousandHundredShadowMethodCastsMathematicalThirtyFiftyPaceInclinationEmploying Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
“When we blew the first atomic bomb at White Sands near the end of the war, nobody knew what was going to happen. There was a theory that the chain reaction would continue forever. And we would have created a little tiny sun out there in the desert that would burn until the end of the universe. It wasn't a widely held theory but it was a theory that nobody had a way of disproving. There were people who thought it wouldn't go off at all, that it would simply sit out there and melt and produce a great big dirty cloud of radioactivity. Nobody knew.” PeopleWayFirstsLittlesWarEndsBigsHappensUniverseWhiteSunForeverProduceTheoryCloudsTinyReactionsChainsDesertDirtyBombsSandAtomic BombChain ReactionsWhite Sand Author:Stephen King
“I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out.” IfsThinkingYearsMatterHappensEarthGuyTurnsLosesSpaceMillionsSunTheoryBaseballGiantsCosmicThis GuyBurn OutSnowball Author:Bill Lee