Discovery Institute

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Revision as of 21:11, 4 May 2011

Goddidit!

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The Discovery Institute is a religious "think tank" famous for its attempts at getting intelligent design taught in American schools. Many of its goals are set out in the Wedge Document.

It is also well known for its attempts to persuade schools that they should "Teach the Controversy." In fact no scientific controversy over evolution exists and this is simply another part of the Wedge Strategy.

They have recently produced Explore Evolution to further their strategy.

The Discovery Institute also coined the term "evolutionist", in an attempt to undermine the scientific aspect of evolution, and equate it to a religion.

Contents

In their own words

The Discovery Institutes's original banner. Yes, the kerning and compression really were that bad.

The Discovery Institute describes itself as follows[1]:

The point of view Discovery brings to its work includes a belief in God-given reason and the permanency of human nature; the principles of representative democracy and public service expounded by the American Founders; free market economics domestically and internationally; the social requirement to balance personal liberty with responsibility; the spirit of voluntarism crucial to civil society; the continuing validity of American international leadership; and the potential of science and technology to promote an improved future for individuals, families and communities.

However the vast majority of the material on their homepage seems to be associated with intelligent design and evolution. Furthermore, in their defense of the Wedge Document they are happy to support the statements:

Discovery Institute's Center ... seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies.
Discovery Institute's Center ... wants to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialistic worldview, and to replace it with a science consistent with Christian and theistic convictions.

Money

According to an investigation by The New York Times, the Discovery Institute (who claims to not be motivated or founded on the basis of religion) has been primarily funded by right-wing religious groups.

  • $750,000 donated by The Ahmanson Foundation. Executor Howard Ahmanson once said his goal is "total integration of biblical law into our lives."
  • The MacLellan Foundation, a group who commits itself to "the infallibility of the Scripture" and gives grants to organizations "committed to furthering the Kingdom of Christ," donated $450,000.
  • In 1998, Howard F. Ahmason's conservative philanthropy, Fieldstead & Company, granted the Discovery Institute $300,000 per year for five years. In 1999 the Stewardship Foundation increased its grant to $200,000 per year for five years. According to its website, the Stewardship Foundation was established "to contribute to the propagation of the Christian Gospel by evangelical and missionary work."

The Times identified most of the other twenty-two foundations supporting the Discovery Institute financially are politically conservative.

Reason magazine reported the Discovery Institute acknowledge that the Ahmanson family donated $1.5 million to the Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture for a research and publicity program to "unseat not just Darwinism but also Darwinism's cultural legacy" and have pledged $2.8 million to support the Discovery Institute.[1] More funding has been given to individual members of the Discovery Institute to promote attacking evolution.

Global warming denial

In line with the extreme wingnuttery that usually accompanies creationism, the Disco 'Tute has also endorsed Global Warming denial. In the process, they've also demonstrated Gore's Law.[2]

Actual Scientific Discoveries at Discovery Institute

The following is an exhaustive list of all scientific discoveries made by Discovery Institute over the past decade: [3]

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Senior Fellows at the Discovery Institute

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Discovery Institute - About Discovery
  2. See here and here for two such examples.
  3. http://www.defaithed.com/diddly
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