[TomB]

If scientist much more knowledgeable than me were so certain of evolution it would be scientific law not scientific theory.

Is there any evidence of evolution that would make it a "law"?

[Liberal Classic]

Contrary to public perception, theories are not "promoted" to laws. A law is a concise mathematical relationship that we observe, such as Newton's law of universal gravitation. A theory seeks to explain how the law we observe works, such as Einstein's theory of general relativity. In the early part of the 20th century, it was observed that the orbits of all the planets obeyed Newton's laws except one: Mercury. Look up on the web the precession of the perihelion of Mercury. Einstein showed that Newton's law of universal gravitation was an approximation that becomes inaccurate in the presence of strong gravitational fields. Newton's laws are still taught, of course, and for ordinary things work quite well. However, Einstein's theories are currently the dominant paradigm of how we believe gravity works. In this way, gravity is both a fact and a theory.

[donh]

Is there any evidence of evolution that would make it a "law"?

Is there any evidence supporting the theory of gravitation that would make it a "law"?

[stremba]

Theories never become laws. Theories will always be theories. They are two different things. For example, it once was thought that the law of gravity was an accurate universal description of gravity. Once a THEORY of gravity (better known as the general theory of relativity) was formulated, however, it was realized that the law of gravity isn't accurate in some situations. Basically, this is an example of a theory replacing a law. The problem is poor science education. I am aware that many incompetent science teachers have promulgated the notion that ideas in science progress from hypothesis to theory to law, but that is utterly false. The reality is that theories and laws are different types of ideas. In a nutshell, laws describe phenomena, theories explain them. What scientists actually strive for are theories, not laws.