"Just a Theory"? Pff. Please.

****If you are easily offended, please read no further. Thank you.**** "Evolution is just a theory." What are speakers of this statement trying to say when they use the words "just a." It's simple, really, and I'm getting a little tired of spelling it out for people. When someone uses "just a" in relation to scientific theory, I honestly believe they are really trying to say, "I don't understand it and I don't want to understand it. We've got this book, see, that lays it all out there with knowledge from two thousand years ago and it makes things really simply. A giant space man put us here, in this form, and that's that. Everything that is, always was, and I don't want to hear anything else." The dismissiveness of the words "just a" is just that - a way to dismiss scientific research by including a simple two word phrase, and it's both interesting and sad that those two words can be more persuasive in a debate than all of the information obtained over the centuries about evolution. In everyday life, where people use words all the time in ways they are not intended to be used, the word "theory" means an idea, a hunch, a gut feeling. It's a thought that hasn't been researched, isn't being researched, and most likely won't be researched. In these frequent cases, a theory is most likely not even as strong as some lame-ass hypothesis. In science, however, a theory is several steps down the line from simple hypothesis. There has been research done, observations made, and the use of rational thought is heavily involved in the matter. I believe that people often take offense to evolutionary concepts because it's not a pretty thing to think about, at least in the way I have heard people respond to it. It's been as simple as,"Ew! There is no way I used to be a monkey!" Well, no one said you were a monkey. You were born a human baby, didn't learn too much between then and now, and here I am having to explain simple things to you. When I lived in Virginia, it was a much deeper hatred of the theory of evolution that I saw in the church my father made me attend. Family was very important to these people. So was respect of your elders, to the point of not questioning their reasoning, beliefs, or biases. So was God, and quite often, a literal interpretation of the Bible. I was 13, and all I could do was shake my head and bite my tongue at the irrational things I would hear. As it sometimes turns out, people are offended by the theory of evolution because it basically calls out their beliefs, and the beliefs held by several generations of their family. Some people simply are not prepared to admit that maybe, just maybe (and in this case, abso-freakin'-lutely!), their family could have been believing in the wrong thing for all these years... decades... centuries. Who are scientists to question the guys with the guns? The theory of evolution does not attempt to undermine anyone's beliefs. It simply lays out the data that has been collected, lined up, and understood to show a timeline of how life has changed since the first single-celled organisms developed on Earth. It works from a standpoint of genetic development, rather than some magical ""Poof! We're here!" concept, which hasn't realistically been researched, probably isn't being researched, and most likely won't be researched because faith can't be quantified. There is no recordable data about faith - you believe, or you don't, and I don't. There is data about the theory of evolution, though... and that's more than enough for me.