Hindu devotees light oil lamps during the Diwali festival, on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on November 6, 2014. Diwali, also known as Deepawali, is the five-day Indian festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists around the world. While the holiday is observed by people of different faiths for different reasons, they all acknowledge its underlying theme: the victory of good over evil and the triumph of light over darkness.
Instance. Specific: Hypothesis is usually based on a very specific observation and is limited to that instance. General: A theory is the establishment of a general principle through multiple tests and experiments, and this principle may apply to various specific instances.
Futuyma quoted the definition of theory from the Oxford English Dictionary: a statement of the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed (Futuyma, 1979). This definition is adequate in that a theory must contain a statement of its basic premises.