> A predictive framework that's stood for 100 years is as close to fact
> as anything can be.  In other words, evolution is a fact.  Period.

I guess that wasn't the best example for the point I was trying to make. You 
are right that evolution is so well proven at this point that is passes for 
fact. We can observe it in action, so we do know it occurs. I wasn't really 
trying to debate evolution being true or not, I absolutely believe it is an 
accurate scientific model. The point I was trying to make is that there is no 
real specific delineation for when something has enough collaborating evidence 
to be considered fact and far too often people take a *very* short road to get 
to their conclusions...bias is a very strong factor and very, very hard to 
completely eliminate. I worked in a commercial research lab for years, so I saw 
this kind of thing way too often. Of course science is far from the only field 
where this is common, "it's a fact" is a phrase we all hear uttered about 
things that are not even close to that level of surety. The global warming 
example you mentioned is more the kind of thing I was thinking about...we might 
agree on the fact that warming is occurring (although the headlines today would 
make it appear that we still can't even agree on that) but certainly what some 
people consider as "proof" of the cause others would greatly disagree with. 
When we look at how much of our scientific knowledge today is vastly different 
than even just 100 years ago, one wonders how much different it will be 200, 
500, 1000 years from now. 



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