The Modern Forgery Hypothesis

[Jorge_Stolfi]

[From Wikipedia:]
In modern science, the term "theory" refers to scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way consistent with the scientific method, and fulfilling the criteria required by modern science [...] in contrast to more common uses of the word "theory" that imply that something is unproven or speculative (which in formal terms is better characterized by the word hypothesis). Scientific theories are distinguished from hypotheses, which are individual empirically testable conjectures, and from scientific laws, which are descriptive accounts of the way nature behaves under certain conditions.

I checked Wikipedia, and that definition of "theory" cites no references. 

While that may be the ideal definition of the term, even scientists often use "theory" as a synonym of "conjecture", or as a shorthand for "proposed theory".  As in "You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.", "You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.", "You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.",  etc.

(And "hypothesis" is not the same thing as "conjecture".  Strictly speaking, a hypothesis is a statement that one is accepting as true during a discussion or demonstration -- whether it is actually true or not, proved or not.)

All the best, --stolfi