RE: Question about "faith"
September 28, 2020 at 12:15 pm
(This post was last modified: September 28, 2020 at 1:12 pm by John 6IX Breezy.)
(September 28, 2020 at 10:22 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Sigh.
hy·poth·e·sis
/hīˈpäTHəsəs/
noun
noun: hypothesis; plural noun: hypotheses
a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
A proposed explanation IS a prediction, if it's potentially falsifiable by experiment. A scientific theory is based on evidence supported by hypotheses that survive attempts to falsify them. Neither a hypothesis nor a theory is a mere conjecture.
An issue you're having is using general English dictionaries for domain-specific words. Whether it be faith in Christianity, or hypothesis in science, these are not words that are used the same by the general public. Hypotheses in science are very specific If/Then propositions: "If I manipulate the independent variable in such a manner, then the dependent variable will respond in such a way." There is no explanatory power in hypotheses, they are simply predictions about the outcome of an experiment. Hypotheses cannot support, confirm, or justify a theory: to do so would be affirming the consequent. A researcher takes the general statements of a theory and deduces specific hypotheses from it. As such, a theory is an explanation, and a hypothesis is a prediction.