Darwinism and Gravity

I've been trying to watch more of George Stroumboulopoulos from "The Hour" since, while channel hopping earlier this week, I stumbled upon him making a joke I considered in poor taste. As the callousness of the joke seems to have been an aberration, I won't go into details about it. However, I was intrigued that Ben Stein was going to be on his show, especially after watching Stein call scientists killers.

One of Stein's favorite things to say is that Darwinism can't explain Gravity.

Stein is purposefully making an error in logic.

He is implying a condition of Darwinism that we can test, a hypothesis. Namely, Darwinism explains Gravity. For his Fundamentalist/Creationist audience, they will have already been prepared for this hypothesis. He tests the hypothesis by asking scientists to demonstrate how Darwinism explains Gravity. When they fail to do so by either looking back at him with a stunned look of being presented with lunacy in the guise of reasonable question or by attempting to explain that the hypothesis is flawed, otherwise known as evading the question, he claims that the hypothesis is falsified. Hence, Darwinism is disproved.

Here's an example of that sort of fallacy in action... We know that antibiotics are claimed to solve all sorts of ills. Then explain to me how you would use antibiotics to fix, say, metal stress in a bridge? What? You can't? Therefore, we must conclude that antibiotics are merely an elaborate hoax.

But Stein is not an idiot. He knows that his hypothesis are bogus. He is simply a huckster and he must be gleeful for all the chatter he is generating.

Of course... I've been wondering why he uses the word "Darwinism" as opposed to "Evolution." I haven't given Darwinism much thought for ages. It's a philosophical concept. It isn't science. Evolution is what we observe. Natural selection, genetic drift, etc are theories explaining our observations of evolution. What Stein and his ilk seek to do is to religion-ify science by equating a philosophy related to the science as the science itself and then transpose that philosophy into the realm of religion.

www.thescientificcartoonist.com

In this context, his question begins to make some sense. Can Darwinism, the religion, explain Gravity? I am not sure if the Creationists really want more competition in the religious playing field. Using the same sort of rules for validation as any other religion, I think Darwinism has an answer for Ben Stein's question. (Originally found on Bad Astronomy)