It appears that when people do not (or can not) understand an idea presented to them by science they very often resort to the pithy phrase: "It's just a theory". I read this claim today on a website discussing black holes. More poignantly the "it's just a theory" is used for issues such as evolution, geology, astronomy, electromagnetism, gravitation, special and general relativity and so on. It's also a peculiar facet of such complex theories crashing upon the shores of outrageous ignorance that the people who decry these complex, compelling, constantly changing and self-consciously partial theories are so very fast to adopt their own theories about the world. Particularly theories which feature the concept of God/s prominently.
My theory of ignorance: People will decry anything as a "just a theory" when they can not or will not understand the concepts involved. They will resort to simple narratives which explain an uncomplicated world to them. It is really just selective stupidity. People who hold to the "it's just a theory" theory for the most part do not even understand what a theory is.
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