Why ?

[beerbelly]

In the history of the earth , why is it called The Big Bang Theory ? when most people accept that it is fact !

We do not refer to religion as the god / jesus theory .
I'm perplexed .

[jake-the-peg]

This is just the way things are refered to in Science.

Einstein published the special Theory of Relativity followed by the General theory of Relativity.

Both of these have been demonstrated to be accurate so many times it would make your head swim.

But nobody says "Now we have to take the word theory out"

The word Psalm means song - but nobody insists they have to be sung!

[jno]

fair enough, kempie - obviously I disagree with you, but that seems to be built into your reasoning; fact for you is not fact for me, and vice versa.

[heathfield]

Someone once defined 'truth' as what we are told by someone we accept as an authority.

Kempie, personal experience is not proof of truth. Think of contradictary witness reports. Your own 'skewed perception' means that you will have percieved a 'subjective truth' as distinct from an 'objective truth' or 'absolute truth'. That's an important distinction.

A 'theory' or 'hypothesis' is some statement that does not contradict existing knowledge. It must also be capable of providing deduced experiment which will allow its truth or falsity to be determined. Thus there cannot be a God/Jesus theory, only a belief.

Jno's 'three steps' cannot be demonstrated to be true or false. But existing knowledge shows it to be possible. It would perhaps come under the heading of 'theoretical possibility', and whether I accept it as 'true' or not, well, refer to my first sentence!

[Kinetic]

Hi guys,
Interesting points, the way I see it something is provable only through complete sciences: eg. physics, thermoconduction etc. (a square will always have 4 sides). The BIG BANG theory is a detailed and forethought prediction of how the universe as we know it MAY have happened, using certain unalterable proven facts such as:

Residual radiation (detected energy still travelling through space that came from a cataclysmically huge event)

The distribution and movement of stars and stellar bodies throughout the universe

These facts, proven through what were once theories but are now also facts (e=mc2) are what new teories are based on - forever will we speculate using our knowledge but how much we understand is a differnet matter.

[thedude50]

It is a theory until it is proven. We cannot do that until The Big Bang is recreated in the lab or is 'seen' via Ultra-powerful Sons of Hubble.

[sophie_1003]

Karl Popper (think it was him anyway) said that something can't be true unless it can be proved false-- for example, if trying to prove the theory "All swans are white" you shouldn't look for all the white swans you can, only for black swans and if it is impossible to find a black swan then all swans must be right, proving the theory (or something along those lines) Therefore to prove the Big Bang theory correct, all other theories must be proved incorrect, as this would be pretty much impossible due to the fact that various dietys in various religions who supposedly created everything cannot be found as they usually occupy a celestial body only accessible by death Therefore the Big Bang theory will remain as such. In answer to the original question, religion is not reffered to in this way because everyone who believes it, believes it to be fact and there can be no other way it happened, many people who believe in the Big Bang theory would be likely to adopt a different theory if science proved it more likely. Religion has little to do with logic whereas science does.

[sophie_1003]

sorry *all swans must be white