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I hate hate hate when people try to discredit a theory because "it's a theory not a fact" as if the label of "fact" exists on some kind of science ladder for an idea. "Facts" is a colloquial word like any other, it's not some special category above theories.
Moreover, the most tried and tested theories are facts. Science rarely just disproves an established theory outright. Einstein's General Relatively equations reduces into Newton's Laws of Motion in most situations. Newton's Laws of Motion weren't "wrong", it's just General Relatively is more specific and accurate.
The Scientific Method usually just builds on what already exists without claiming we were all unfactual for working with what we had.
Hypothesis < Theory < Law/Axiom
Axioms are not like the others, they're assumed to be true even before considering any evidence or even arguments.
Facts are tiny, but there are a lot of them. Theories are big but only useful the fewer of them there are. Grow oversimplifications, of course, but the more facts a theory can explain, the more successful the theory. Maybe that's is how they should be framed, theories are never proven, they are only successful or disproven.
Theory != hypothesis.