Another Great Learning Moment

During the original Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn., back in the 1920s, so many people wanted to get into the courtroom to hear testimony that local officials set up loud speakers among the trees on the courthouse square, and hundreds of local citizens sat and listened with rapt attention to the defense's parade of scientific witnesses on the evidence of evolution. It was a great learning moment for rural people denied any ready access to mainstream science.

They listened not to stoke up their bigotry against Darwin but because they were genuinely interested in learning what evolution was ... what the "theory" allowed.

Because, see, scientific theory ain't wild speculation. A point driven home yesterday in testimony during Kitzmiller v. Dover up in Pennsylvania, another of those Scopes Monkey Trial moments.

Barbara Forrest, a witness for the prosecution (the evolution side) in the Dover trial, offered this definition of theory:

"A theory is well established science," Forrest said. "When you propose an idea, it is a hypothesis. When a person purports to have a scientific theory, the research has already been done."

Defense counsel Richard Thompson (for the creationist, anti-evolutionary side) responded, "Would you agree that there are different definitions of theory?"

"In science, there is one," Dr. Forrest answered. "It is an explanation that is confirmed."

Source: Speaking Freely, the blog for the Pennsylvania ACLU.