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Anonymous on February 12, 2010 - 12:02pm wrote: "I also have two problems with the proven thing. One science doesn't prove anything. Science proposes a hypothesis and scientists try and disprove the hypothesis. The longer the hypothesis stands the stronger it is, but it is never proven."

You like many don't understand the difference in a hypothesis and a theory. What you are describing is a hypothesis. That is, an idea that has not been proven. A hypothesis is what many call a theory but there is a great difference. A scientist develops a hypothesis from information available to him/her and makes efforts to prove the hypothesis through experimentation. If his experimentation and observations support his/her hypothesis, it advances to a theory and that's when the shooting gallery begins. Other scientists repeat the experiments and observations. If they all find the same results, it remains a theory but if even one finds a fault with the theory, it reverts to . . . Nothing! It is not even a hypothesis any longer. Only when a theory withstands repeated challenges does it become an established theory and only after repeated attempts to disprove it and usually a matter of years does it become established fact.

The problem with the hypothesis that male circumcision prevents infections and HIV is that simple observations of different cultures and populations do not show the promised results. This singular fact destroys the hypothesis.

March 1, 2010 - 8:58am

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