I think the title of this thread is misleading (almost certainly unintentionally).<br /><br />This brings up a pet peeve of mine, which is the common misunderstanding of the words theory, hypothesis, speculation (and natural law and principle). You can see evidence of this misunderstanding all the time in some newspaper stories, or any of the many intentional mischaracterizations by creationites and 'intelligent design'-ites.<br /><br />"Excavating <font color="black">theoretical</font>Martian fossils."<br /><br />The title should read:<br />"Excavating <font color="yellow">speculative</font>Martian fossils."<br /><br />The following title is also too unsupported:<br />"Excavating <font color="black">hypothetical</font>Martian fossils."<br /><br />We have absolutely no data that life ever existed on Mars, nor any data that any fossils exist on Mars. Zero. In fact, argumentatively (with no data), the possibility that life ever existed on Mars leans to unlikely.<br /><br />"Theoretical" means describing an idea which is part of a theory, or a consequence derived from theory. Theories are comprehensive explanations of a given set of data that has been repeatedly confirmed by observation and experimentation and has gained general acceptance within the scientific community. Usually an explanation remains a theory until a decisive proof can be shown (which is usually only possible in mathematics).<br /><br />No fossil data means that the thread title should not be "theoretical", since it cannot mean the minimal standard for this word.<br /><br />"Hypothesis" is a tentative explanation of a given set of data that is expected to remain valid after future observation and experimentation, or a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena. <br /><br />Probably the complete lack of Martian fossil data also excludes "hypothetical" from proper use in the thread title.<br /><br />"Speculative" means simply showing c <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>