Or proven so where does that leave you?
itsahoot: "Or proven so where does that leave you?"
You folks are playing word definition games, and I wonder why?
Surely you know in strict scientific terms, no theory is ever proven, at best it's confirmed.
And no hypothesis is "disproved", though it may well be falsified.
By definition, if a theory is "proved", meaning observed, it's no longer theory, now it's fact.
An example is the globe shaped Earth -- first hypothesis, then confirmed theory, now observed fact.
So basic evolution is a confirmed theory, confirmed by innumerable observations of its predictions, for example that fossils are found in appropriate geological strata.
We don't have confirmed observations of elephants & dinosaurs together.
So words like "proved" imply scientific facts, and "fact" is reserved for confirmed observations -- what we can actually see or detect.
Since we can't watch ancient creatures evolving into new species, that will never be a "fact" only at best a strongly confirmed theory.
But while overall evolution is theory, many aspects of it are observed facts, for example: descent with modifications.
We can see it and we can do it, as in dogs evolved from wolves -- dogs are a new species and within dogs we've evolved many sub-species and breeds.
So "descent with modification" is observed, confirmed fact and so also is natural selection.
But unobservable speciation events in the deep past can only ever be confirmed scientific theory.