answer:@ETpro: “What’s the most effective way to help those unschooled in science understand the differences in individual hunch-style theory, scientific hypothesis, scientific theory and scientific law?” Great question. It seems, however, that people who use theory in the “hunch” sense when discussing science aren’t merely ignorant of the concept of a scientific theory. Many of these people appear to be intentially misusing the word. There are apologists that have been doing their thing for many years, and have been called out on their lack of understanding of scientific theory for just as many years. The fact that they continue to practice this deception is intentional. There’s no way around it. We recently had a thread about how amazing science education is in public schools in the U.S. (~), so I think average people with a high school diploma know the difference – or knew there was a difference at one point. Maybe they need a reminder. It’s too bad that scientists can’t just decide on a new term altogether, as “theory” appears to have been ruined. But I can’t see this as solving much other than to hand certain groups another piece of ammo in their conspiracy theories about how science is trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.