[Coyoteman]

Yeah. I know. Everyone in the world that cherishes Scientific fact over theories are idiots and beneath you elitists.

It is not a matter of selecting one over the other. Both facts and theories are required in order to do science.

I think Heinlein may have expressed this best:

Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.

A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts.

Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, 1980, pp. 480-481

[Stultis]

Interestingly I hadn't yet read your reply while composing mine.

Coyoteman:

Both facts and theories are required in order to do science

Stultis:

both facts and theories are necessary to do science

...great minds...