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Suppose someone told you they practiced "Dave-ism" - I'd think they were referring to obedience to the teachings of "Dave".
Such is the problem I have with the term "Darwinism". Darwin was not aware of the vast majority of the evidence available to us today. Because of this, he was no more equipped to make the subtle, nuanced conclusions about evolution than Newton was to discuss advanced aerodynamics, or Galileo was to pilot the space shuttle.
Evolution doesn't rely on Darwin's words any more than physics relies on Newton's three laws of motion. Darwin's theories were what he considered the best explanation for the evidence he observed. We have observed far more evidence than he ever did, and we've created our own theories that differ, subtly but significantly, from Darwin's.
True "Darwinism" - obedience to Darwin's words to the exclusion of all other ideas - would be completely absurd if anyone actually practiced it. But nobody does.
Science has a rich tradition of discarding imprecise theories. You don't see Newtonists locked in a crusade against Einsteinians over whose model of physics is superior. Similarly, Darwinian evolution has given way to modern evolutionary theory, which is more concerned with the exact mechanisms at work than it is with the general ideas Darwin discovered.
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We work together every damn day. --Jon Stewart
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