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I had someone show me that when you search “gravity is fact” on google you’ll get the National Center for Science Education saying things like “gravity is only a theory”

Can someone just read these screenshots I’ve given or go to this link https://ncse.ngo/gravity-its-only-theory and tell me if this organization is being incredibly ignorant and wrong, if it’s worded weird, or if I’m being ignorant right now?

Just the way they speak about gravity makes it seem like they don’t believe it exists at all

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    $\begingroup$ Did you read the disclaimer right under the title of the article? $\endgroup$
    – Andrew
    Oct 3, 2021 at 15:27
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    $\begingroup$ Anyone who thinks gravity is "just a theory" could be taken to the top of a tall building and dropped. I'm pretty sure they'll change their mind on the way down. :-) $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Oct 3, 2021 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ Pseudoscience is scaringly rapidly spreading everywhere, in age of internet. Irony is that, These idiots are using science to spraed their pseudoscience. $\endgroup$
    – Kshitij Kumar
    Oct 3, 2021 at 15:35
  • $\begingroup$ You need to read it carefully. $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Oct 3, 2021 at 19:04
  • $\begingroup$ It’s only a fact. What use are those? $\endgroup$
    – Cosmas Zachos
    Oct 3, 2021 at 19:09

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This is a satirical piece showing the absurdity of what anti-science lobby organizations are trying to do regarding evolution by showing how it would impact a textbook presentation of gravity if those same anti-science requirements were applied there also. Note the key quote:

This satirical look at "only a theory" disclaimers imagines what might happen if advocates applied the same logic to the theory of gravitation that they do to the theory of evolution

Emphasis added.

As you said

Just the way they speak about gravity makes it seem like they don’t believe it exists at all

That is the point. The types of disclaimers proposed by anti-evolution lobbyists are designed specifically to convey that impression

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The article is a parody, and is intended to be humorous. As it says at the top:

This satirical look at "only a theory" disclaimers imagines what might happen if advocates applied the same logic to the theory of gravitation that they do to the theory of evolution.

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Getting excited about "pseudoscience" and coding ones lack of self-confidence into a silly geek humor parable bears no added value for science. Hence, it is not worth to be called "educational" either.

Scepticism is at the heart of science and calling something "only a theory" might humble oneself and remind one of the historical fact that theories change over time. Because theories change, the inaccuracies of older theories get uncovered by newer theories. Nobody can be confident that there will ever be a final theory (which we might then call plain fact) of anything, so for the time being, everything we see, hear or feel is always "only a theory", and it is good to be conscious about that.

Some of the contemporaries of Galileo, who wanted him to shut up, probably also made fun of his ideas in the same way as the reference you have cited. This is a sign of personal immaturity.

Never let anyone tempt you to be arrogant about people with different ideas, because you might turn out to be like those middle-age clerics in the end. If you are not convinced of something then it is just that: you are not convinced, and insisting on that over and over again is okay, because you might still be wrong or even stupid. But don't pick on anybody, because that will put you in an extremely uncool position if they are actually right.

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  • $\begingroup$ I knew that my answer would get downvoted. I couldn't seriously expect my pleads for tolerance to be successful. So, let's just wait and see what all this bitterness leads to. History could teach us, but it doesn't, obviously... $\endgroup$
    – oliver
    Oct 5, 2021 at 15:02

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