Similarly, I'm wondering what the science community finds so threatening about the word "theory".
Perhaps there's something unsettling about the reality that you don't have every answer of all of God's mysteries. Even more settling is the fact that you never will.
"Settling" for us, yes.
> I'm wondering what the science community finds so threatening about the word "theory".
Because the forces of ignorance have managed to convince the public that "theory" = "guess." Those who would throttle the mind of man use "it's just a theory" as a dishonest, yet successful in the scientifically illiterate public, to smear any facts they don't like.
Nothing at all. The science community uses the word a lot -- but they use it correctly.
The problem in this case, however, is that a common tactic for anti-science yahoos is to fling the word "theory" inappropriately and with the intent to propaganadize and demagogue, because they know that to the general public, the word "theory" means only "a guess, one possible explanation of many".
While the phrase "Big Bang theory" itself would be unobjectionable when used by a scientist in the proper context, it's a shining red flag when some idiot *insists* that the word "theory" be attached to the term "Big Bang" everywhere it appears, because it means that he's pushing an agenda and trying to undermine confidence in it. It would be like someone trying to replace all instances of the word "Jesus" with "the Jesus myth", even though strictly speaking, the word "myth" is no more pejorative than the word "theory". That's the kind of crap we don't need in a bureaucrat responsible for scientific matters.
Furthermore there are times when the phrase "Big Bang theory" *would* be inaccurate as substitute for "the Big Bang", as when talking about the event itself. Similarly, it would be goofy to say that a boy fell down and skinned his knee due to "gravity theory" -- no, he fell down because of *gravity*, period. Gravity theory is an explanatory system for gravity, but is not gravity itself. Similarly, Big Bang theory is the explanation of the details of the Big Bang, but there are still contexts in which it makes sense to talk about "the Big Bang" and not "Big Bang theory".
Perhaps there's something unsettling about the reality that you don't have every answer of all of God's mysteries. Even more settling is the fact that you never will.
Perhaps you haven't a clue why people are actually objecting to this guy's behavior, and you have your own agenda about trying to turn everything into a religious argument.
It's the selective use of the word that makes honest folks cringe.
Do you insist *all* theories be clearly labeled as such? When talking about gravity, are you always careful to say, "Theory of Gravity"?
No.
It's the selective use of the word 'theory' -- that they only use the word when they disagree with the ideas on the basis of religion.
If you're honest, it's all or nothing. Either all *theories* need to have the word pasted on, or none need to.
Seems simple and obvious to me. Anything else is pushing an agenda.