Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20141017020106/@comment-24891101-20141117222022

The key difference, however, is that there is no existing further contrary evidence.Therefore, we say it is real, in that it is currently the best explanation for observed phenomena, and it represents the state-of-the-art of the field, and accepted by the vast majority of specialists in the field, people who know more of evolutionary biology than you or I, and whose expert opinions are the only ones which matter. I accept the explanation because it is not my field, and I trust my fellows, whose specialty that is.

And yes, it is the "theory of evolution", in the same way that there exists the theory of relativty, cell theory, and the theory of plate techtonics. There is currently a consensus in the field, and therefore we must give credence to the theory, given the degree of certainty.