Or. Dark energy and dark matter may be simply our inventions to explain observations that don’t otherwise fit our theories. This may be a problem with our theories, not the universe.
The present consensus is that for our theories to work, roughly 95% of the total energy and matter in the universe must be “dark.”
Which might very well be true. However, there is something really odd about developing a theory about 95% of the universe based solely on observations of the remaining 5%.
IOW, if your theories don’t agree with observations by 95%, you should reconsider your theories, not automatically postulate incredible amount of undetectable mass and energy to make your sums come out right.
I realize many scientists are doing just that, and I’m not trying to say there’s a conspiracy to hide the truth. Only that dark energy and matter appear to have a great deal in common with the older notions about ether and such.
This is much like the "settled" science of Global Warming. It ain't settled. The universe is what it is, and our current theories require very large "fudge factors" to make them work.
For quite some time, I've thought that both "dark matter" and "dark energy" were hand-waving on the part of physicists made necessary because there are some rather fundamental things about the universe that we do not yet know. I suspect one of the reasons we do not know some of this stuff is that we're stuck inside a rather large gravity well that is going to make discovering things more difficult than it otherwise might be. Perhaps this is one of God's practical jokes. Until you're advanced enough to leave your planet, you don't get to know how things really work.