From Geoffrey Mann
Lawrence Krauss believes that scientists should not use the word “theory” to describe speculative or unproven ideas, as in “string theory” or “inflationary theory”, since this allows proponents of intelligent design to dismiss evolution as “just another theory” (3 December, p 23). But his suggestion that scientists should define the word differently from common usage is surely the wrong approach.
There is another stronger word already used to describe theories that have stood the test of time, particularly if the theory can be expressed relatively simply. The word is “law” – as in the laws of thermodynamics, Boyle’s law, Newton’s law of gravity, and so on. Surely Darwin’s “theory” of evolution falls comprehensively into this category.
Intelligent design may be a theory, but it can hardly qualify as a law.
