Is it True that ‘Evolution Is a Theory, Not a Fact’?

Abstract

The teaching of evolutionary theory in U.S. public school science classes has been called into question via numerous school board mandated evolution is a theory, not a fact disclaimers that have appeared on science textbooks in recent years and which have been the subject of recent court cases. I evaluate the scientific reasonability of such disclaimers by engaging in conceptual analysis on the crucial terms in the key claimevolution is a theory, not a fact Assessing various interpretations of the key claim, I argue that, for any interpretation, it is either clearly false, or trivially true, or not even marginally reasonable as a rationale, of the sort pertaining to science, that justifies the use of the disclaimer or the advice it recommends to students. I conclude that such disclaimers have no scientific merit Finally, I offer brief remarks about what we may learn from the use of the disclaimers, as well as a word about the relevance of methodological naturalism to current disputes, and likely ones in the near future, over evolution.