Honestly, I haven’t read every page that’s been argued here, but:
Here are some working definitions of hypothesis, theory, and law in the scientific realm:
A hypothesis: A possible explanation of a phenomena based on observations and subject to scientific testing. A hypothesis can never be proven, only “supported” by the evidence, though evidence can disprove a hypothesis.
A theory: A well-accepted hypothesis that has withstood the test of time. It has been tested repeatedly, and possibly tweaked to fit new evidence.
Scientific fact: An observed phenomenon/characteristic that is repeatable (e.g., the sky is blue; pure water freezes when the temperature drops to 32 degrees F or 0 degrees C; when an inanimate object is let go from your hand, it will fall to the ground).
Scientific law: A detailed description (often mathematical) of an observed phenomenon (a scientific fact). The description merely describes the phenomenon - it does not attempt to claim how the phenomenon works. Scientific laws are useful in making calculations in the real world, but they don’t explain why the phenomena happen.
Scientific facts and laws are the “what” of science, hypotheses and theories attempt to answer “how”. In many cases, such as quantum physics, the “how” is currently impossible to determine; in other cases, such as evolution (which, according to the scientific community is a “fact” or a “law”, not a theory - as Judas Thaddeus noted earlier, many scientists have observed one species of bacteria becoming an entirely different species of bacteria - no longer able to share genetic material with the parent species), the phenomena is observed, but when speciation happens is sometimes hard to tell.
Regardless, Catholics are allowed to have wide perspectives on evolution (and the Big Bang Theory, etc.). What we should not forget, though, is that the Church does not see a contradiction between evolution and the Gospel. If God decided to use evolution as a tool to create us, who are we to argue? Who’s to say that it wasn’t God Himself who directed the evolution by taking DNA from each parent and recombining it to create the offspring that He desired? Somewhere along the line, the Homo sapiens species became self-aware. Scientists don’t know how this happened, only that it obviously did happen, as the original Homo sapiens were not self-aware, but we are. Could not this “attainment of self-awareness”, as scientists call it, be the infusion of the immortal soul? Or is it the Fall from Grace?
It’s important to note that the so-called “Father of Genetics”, Gregor Mendel, was a Benedictine Catholic monk. The man who came up with the “Big Bang Theory” was a Catholic priest. Some of the greatest breakthroughs in embryology and adult stem-cell research are currently being done by Dominicans. St. Albertus Magnus, a Dominican himself, is considered the patron saint of natural scientists. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is a chemist by trade, and the archbishop of Portland, Oregon, Alexander Sample, is an engineer by trade (getting his BS and MSE from a state-run university). The Catholic Church has never stated that one must abandon reason in order to remain faithful - on the contrary, there are many Catholic scientists who see science as a way to understand God’s wonders. The more they research, the more awe-struck they are by God’s work.
By the way - 6000 years ago (about 4000 BC) might not fit with the beginnings of humankind, but it is remarkably close to the beginnings of human civilization during the Neolithic Age.
