Yazata
Valued Senior Member
Facts and theories are two different things.
Ok.
Facts are the observations, theories try to explain what is observed.
If facts are observations, then how could it be possible for an observation report to ever be false or mistaken?
Evolution is a fact that can only be denied by those totally ignorant of the current knowledge of those observed facts, or by someone with mental problems or other impediments to accepting reality.
Theists often say things like that about belief in God. God's existence is supposed to be obvious to everyone who isn't a damnable "denier", individuals who are too attached to their own lives of sin.
Given the thesis that facts are observations, and the assertion that "evolution" (whatever that means) is a fact, then it would seem that evolution should be something that people directly observe. That might be plausible if we define 'evolution' as change over time. Obviously people observe the world as constantly changing. But it's far less plausible to say that people directly observe biological speciation by natural selection. That's pretty clearly an explanatory model.
So, to summarize, facts are undeniable by rational actors
I think that you are on very shaky ground there, philosophically speaking.
Once again, if facts are observations, and if facts are undeniable by rational actors, then how can scientific observation reports, reports of experimental results or whatever they are, ever be mistaken? You seem to be arguing that a particular class of scientific statements must be treated as infallible and inerrant.
Bottom line: I don't believe that facts are observations or observation reports. Facts are real existing states of affairs. An observation report is true if it corresponds to the facts and it is false if it doesn't. Experimentalists sometimes make mistakes and what they report doesn't always turn out to be true.
I don't believe that evolution, at least evolution in the interesting biological sense, is directly observed. It's inferred on the basis of evidence.
Evolution may indeed be a fact, but only if it is truly the case that real-life biology behaves in the way that evolutionary theory says it does.
Personally, I'm quite confident that our ideas of biological evolution are correct as to the big picture. I'm less confident that we know all the small technical details or that we can accurately describe the evolutionary history of all species at the present time.