Simple question.

Oh my God! I cannot believe you just said that. Okay, we are no longer in the realm of science. It is not our job to disprove the existence of it, because we made no such claim. He who claims something exists must prove it, not rely on others to disprove it. Else it's not science.

RE scientists came up with dark energy as a way to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. We simply borrowed it to explain the acceleration in our model.

And then quickly decided that since there wasn't any evidence for it, they weren't going to use it as science. They have since found that the universe is constantly expanding, but it is slowing down, not accelerating as you profess. Thus, dark energy is no longer needed in the RE model, and has been discredited as science fiction by anybody with any kind of common sense. The problem is, FE'ers still use it in their model, and it is essential to their acceleration theory, which cannot be observed I might add. If everything else is moving at the same rate, then you cannot observe the acceleration, because gravity is a much simpler explanation.

Dark matter has absolutely nothing to do with the accelerating expansion of the universe, you're thinking dark energy, and dark energy is nothing more than a placeholder explanation for a phenomenon which cosmologists do not yet entirely understand. To then borrow this poorly understood stuff and imbue it with properties no scientist ever claimed it possessed is ridiculous.

And then quickly decided that since there wasn't any evidence for it, they weren't going to use it as science. They have since found that the universe is constantly expanding, but it is slowing down, not accelerating as you profess.

If the rate is slowing down, it is accelerating. Just negatively.
And where did you get the idea that dark energy is discredited? I know that there are some other theories out there that try to explain the acceleration without dark energy, but I'm fairly certain it hasn't been discredited.
Would you mind giving me links to some articles about this? Because I can't find any.

If everything else is moving at the same rate, then you cannot observe the acceleration, because gravity is a much simpler explanation.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Dark matter has absolutely nothing to do with the accelerating expansion of the universe

Sorry, that was a typo. I meant to say energy.

Yeah, sorry about that Penguin, I was typing fast and messed up. What I meant was, if everything is accelerating, we wouldn't be able to tell, other than the fact that things fall to the ground. Relatively, everything is staying in the same place, except for things on the earth (still don't understand that part, perhaps something to do with being in the atmosphere) but anyways, gravity is a much simpler explanation as to why things fall down. Gravity is observable, you can actually watch it occur. There are plenty of tests I'm sure you could find if you Googled gravity to prove it without using something falling to the earth. So I just meant, gravity is observable, while this supposed acceleration isn't, so I'm going to go with the one that I can see happening.

Hmm, it appears I was misinformed about dark energy, but still, when I Googled it, it appeared that not that much was known about it, and it still viewed as a hypothetical substance not yet proven to exist. To try and claim that this is the universal accelerator is ridiculous and actually it's quite profound to make such a bold move.

Dark energy is in no way 'discredited', Aralith, though there are several competing hypotheses. But no one really knows what it is, so it's just plain stupid to assert that, not only could dark energy power a constant acceleration for the entire history of the planet, but that it actually DOES power this acceleration.

What I meant was, if everything is accelerating, we wouldn't be able to tell, other than the fact that things fall to the ground. Relatively, everything is staying in the same place, except for things on the earth. Gravity is a much simpler explanation as to why things fall down. Gravity is observable, you can actually watch it occur. There are plenty of tests I'm sure you could find if you Googled gravity to prove it without using something falling to the earth. So I just meant, gravity is observable, while this supposed acceleration isn't, so I'm going to go with the one that I can see happening.

I'm still not sure what you mean. Gravity is acceleration.

No one really knows what it is, so it's just plain stupid to assert that, not only could dark energy power a constant acceleration for the entire history of the planet, but that it actually DOES power this acceleration.

We're really not even saying dark energy is the same thing RE scientists claim it is. We just use it as a name for the force accelerating the universe. As a "placeholder explanation for a phenomenon which we do not yet entirely understand."