The
Discovery Institute is a conservative non-profit public policy
think tankA think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice...
based in
Seattle, WashingtonSeattle is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington State on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes...
, best known for its advocacy of
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
. Its
Teach the ControversyTeach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while discrediting evolution in United States public high school science courses...
campaign aims to teach
creationistCreationism refers to the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in some form by a supernatural being or beings, commonly a single deity...
anti-
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
beliefs in United States
public high schoolA public high school is a secondary school in the United States of America that is financed by tax revenues and other government-collected revenues and administered exclusively by state and local officials. On the other hand, private schools are typically funded by tuition and private donations....
science coursesScience education is the field concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education comprises...
. A federal court, along with the majority of scientific organizations, including the
American Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation between scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for...
, say the Institute has manufactured the controversy they want to teach by promoting a false perception that evolution is "a theory in crisis", through incorrectly claiming that it is the subject of wide controversy and debate within the scientific community. In 2005, a federal court ruled that the Discovery Institute pursues "demonstrably religious, cultural, and legal missions", and the institute's manifesto, the
Wedge strategyThe wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...
, describes a religious goal: to "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions".
History
The institute was founded in 1990 as a non-profit educational foundation and think tank based upon the Christian
apologeticsApologetics is the whole of the consensus of the views of those who defend a position in an argument of long standing. The term comes from the Greek word apologia , meaning a speaking in defense....
of
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
. It was founded as a branch of the
Hudson InstituteThe Hudson Institute is an American, conservative, non-profit think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
, an Indianapolis-based
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
think tankA think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice...
, and is named after the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
ship
HMS DiscoveryHMS Discovery was a Royal Navy ship best known as the lead ship in George Vancouver's exploration of the west coast of North America in his 1791-1795 expedition.Discovery was built at the Randall & Brents shipyard in London in 1789...
in which
George VancouverCaptain George Vancouver RN was an officer in the British Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of the North-West Coast of North America, including the shores of the modern day Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
explored
Puget SoundPuget Sound is a sound or complex of inland marine waterways in the northwestern part of Washington, United States, extending from the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca south to the head of the sound at the state capital of Olympia. It branches out from Admiralty Inlet and Deception Pass...
in 1792.
In 1966 the institute's founder and president,
Bruce ChapmanBruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...
and Harvard roommate
George GilderGeorge F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, participated in the
Ripon SocietyThe Ripon Society is a centrist Republican think tank, founded on December 12, 1962, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The name is a reference to Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party; the Society sees itself as urging a return to the party's founding principles...
, a group for Republican liberals, and collaborated on
Advance, dubbed "the unofficial Republican magazine," which criticized the party from within for catering to segregationists,
John BirchersThe John Birch Society is a political advocacy group that supports what it considers traditionally conservative causes such as the private ownership of property, the rule of law and U.S. sovereignty but opposes globalism. The society is paleoconservative on the American political spectrum. Founded...
, and other "extremists". Following their graduation, Chapman and Gilder advanced their "progressive" Republican campaign in their 1966
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
book
The Party That Lost Its Head. The book critiqued
Barry GoldwaterBarry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. He was also a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was known as "Mr...
’s 1964 presidential candidacy and dismissed the GOP’s embrace of rising star
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
as the party's hope to "usurp reality with the fading world of the class-B movie."
The Party That Lost Its Head denounced Goldwater’s conservative backers for their "rampant" and "paranoid distrust" of intellectuals. The book labeled the Goldwater campaign a "brute assault on the entire intellectual world," and places the blame for this development on what they viewed as a wrong political tactic; "In recent years the Republicans as a party have been alienating intellectuals deliberately, as a matter of taste and strategy." Chapman moved to the
rightIn politics, right-wing, political right, rightist and the Right are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for preserving traditional or cultural values and customs or for maintaining some form of social hierarchy or private...
in the
Reagan administrationThe United States Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan Administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989. Reagan was the first U.S. president since Dwight D...
, where he served as director of the Census Bureau. Chapman left the Census Bureau to work in the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
under Reagan adviser Edwin Meese III - now a Discovery Institute Adjunct Fellow, and was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
Organizations in Vienna.
Co-founder and Senior Fellow George Gilder wrote several books addressing culture, technology, and poverty, including,
Visible Man, (1978) which criticised American culture for its failure to promote the ideals of the traditional nuclear family. His next work,
Wealth and Poverty, (1981), was cited by President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
. Gilder’s later books have dealt more with developments in technology, such as
Microcosm (1990) and
Life After Television (1994).
Chapman had built a political platform, but lacked funding and a defining issue. In December 1993 Chapman noticed an essay in the
Wall Street Journal by
Stephen C. MeyerThis page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
about a dispute when biology lecturer
Dean H. KenyonDean H. Kenyon is Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Francisco State University and well-known creationist and intelligent design proponent. He is also the author of Of Pandas and People.- Early career :...
taught intelligent design creationism in introductory classes. Kenyon had co-authored
Of Pandas and PeopleOf Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics . It espouses the idea of intelligent design —namely that life shows...
, and in 1993 Meyer had contributed to the teacher's notes for the second edition of
Pandas. Meyer was an old friend of
George GilderGeorge F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
, and over dinner about a year later they formed the idea of a think tank opposed to
materialismThe philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance. As a theory, materialism is a form of physicalism and belongs to the...
. In the summer of 1995 Chapman and Meyer met a representative of
Howard Ahmanson, Jr.Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of the causes of many conservative Christian cultural, religious and political organizations.He lives in...
. Meyer, who had previously tutored Ahmanson's son in science, recalls being asked "What could you do if you had some financial backing?" In 1996 the promise of $750,000 over three years from the Ahmansons and a smaller grant from the conservative Christian MacLellan Foundation was used to fund the institute's
Center for the Renewal of Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
which went on to form the motive force behind the
intelligent design movementThe intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include...
. In 2002 the name was changed to the
Center for Science and Culture.
Organization
The institute is headed by
Bruce ChapmanBruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...
, president. Vice presidents are Steven J. Buri, and
Stephen C. MeyerThis page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
(who also serves as an institute senior fellow and the program director of the Center for Science and Culture).
Its board of directors includes:
- social and religious conservative Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of the causes of many conservative Christian cultural, religious and political organizations.He lives in...
. Frederick Clarkson at PublicEye.org says that Howard is a Reconstructionist (another name for a Dominionist)
- influential local businessmen Tom Alberg, William Baldwin, Mike Vaska
- opinion and policy makers:
- former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton
Thomas Slade Gorton III is an American politician. A Republican, he was a U.S. senator from Washington state from 1981 until 1987, and then from 1989 until 2001. He held both of the state's Senate seats in his career and was narrowly defeated for reelection twice as an incumbent; in 1986 by Brock...
- Christopher Bayley
Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture
The
Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the
Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is the most important subsidiary of the Discovery Institute. It was established in 1996 with the assistance of
Phillip E. JohnsonPhillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian as a tenured professor. He is considered the father of the intelligent design movement, which rejects the theory of evolution, and promotes intelligent design, as an alternative. Johnson also...
to advance the Wedge strategy. Chapman calls the CSC "our No. 1 project."
The CSC offers fellowships of up to $60,000 a year for "support of significant and original research in the natural sciences, the history and philosophy of science, cognitive science and related fields." Since its founding in 1996, the institute's CSC has spent 39 percent of its $9.3 million on research according to Meyer, underwriting books or papers, or often just paying universities to release professors from some teaching responsibilities so that they can work on intelligent design related scholarship. Over those nine years, $792,585 financed laboratory or field research in biology, paleontology or biophysics, while $93,828 helped graduate students in paleontology, linguistics, history and philosophy. The CSC lobbies aggressively to policymakers for wider acceptance of intelligent design and against the theory of
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
and what it terms "scientific materialism." To that end the CSC works to advance a policy it terms the Wedge strategy, of which the "Teach the Controversy" campaign is a major component. The "Teach the Controversy" strategy was announced by Meyer in 2002
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Meyer.cfm. It seeks to portray evolution as a "theory in crisis" and leave the
scientific communityThe scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
looking closed-minded, opening the public school science curriculum to creation-based alternatives to evolution such as intelligent design, and thereby undermining "scientific materialism."
Biologic Institute
In 2005 the Discovery Institute provided the funding to set up the Biologic Institute in
RedmondRedmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 45,256 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 48,739 in 2006. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America...
and the
FremontFremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Originally a separate city, it was annexed to Seattle in 1891. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E...
district of
SeattleSeattle is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington State on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes...
,
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
, headed by Douglas Axe. The Biologic Institute claims to conduct research into
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
in response to one of the primary criticisms of intelligent design, that there is no valid research conducted by the scientific community on the topic. According to Axe, the lab's main objective "is to show that the design perspective can lead to better science", and will "contribute substantially to the scientific case for intelligent design". Biologic's staff consists of "at least three researchers" (Axe, the senior researcher; Zoology PhD Ann Gauger, who like Axe is a signatory to the Discovery Institute's anti-evolution manifesto
A Scientific Dissent From DarwinismA Scientific Dissent from Darwinism is a petition whose signatories attest to a statement which expresses skepticism about the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life, and encourages careful examination of the evidence for "Darwinism," a term...
; Brendan Dixon, a software developer). In keeping with the Discovery Institute's October 2006 statement that intelligent design research is being conducted by the institute in secret to avoid the scrutiny of the scientific community, both Axe and Discovery Institute spokesperson Rob Crowther portray it as a "separate entity" despite being funded by the Discovery Institute.
Previously serving as a director of the institute was George Weber, who is also a member of the local chapter of the creationist group
Reasons to BelieveHugh Norman Ross is a Canadian-born Old Earth creationist and Christian apologist. An astronomer and astrophysicist, he has established his own ministry called Reasons To Believe that promotes forms of Old Earth creationism known as progressive creationism and day-age creationism...
. In an interview he stated that the lab is a wing of the Discovery Institute and that their goal is to "challenge the scientific community on naturalism" and "What we are doing is necessary to move ID along" which led to his dismissal from the board of the institute.
PZ MyersPaul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the science blog Pharyngula. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
likens the Biologic Institute's design research program to
cargo cultA cargo cult is a type of religious practice that may appear in traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced, non-native cultures...
s, with "Intelligent Design creationists pretend[ing] that they're doing science."
Discovery Institute Programs
The Discovery Institute through the
Center for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
has been advancing the agenda set forth in its mission statements in both the political and social spheres. That agenda includes the intelligent design movement; transportation in the
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canadian northwest (
CascadiaThe Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There are several partially overlapping definitions of the region, but they generally include the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and...
); a bioethics program opposed to
assisted suicideAssisted suicide is the process by which an individual, who may otherwise be incapable, is provided with the means to commit suicide. In some cases, the terms aid in dying or death with dignity are preferred...
,
euthanasiaEuthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner. Many different forms of euthanasia can be distinguished, including animal euthanasia and human euthanasia, and within the latter, voluntary and involuntary euthanasia...
, embryonic stem cell research, human genetic manipulation,
human cloningHuman cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human , human cell, or human tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
, and the animal rights movement. Its economics and legal programs advocate
tortTort law is a body of law that addresses, and provides remedies for, civil wrongs not arising out of contractual obligations. A person who suffers legal damages may be able to use tort law to receive compensation from someone who is legally responsible, or liable, for those injuries...
reform, lower taxation, and reduced economic regulation of individuals and groups as the best economic policy. The Discovery Institute also maintains a foreign policy program currently focused on Russia and East Asia.
The Institute's primary thrust in terms of funding and resources dedicated are those political and cultural campaigns centering around intelligent design. These include the:
- Wedge strategy
The wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...
- Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include...
- Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while discrediting evolution in United States public high school science courses...
Intelligent design and Teach the Controversy
The Discovery Institute's main thrust has been to promote intelligent design politically to the public, education officials and public policymakers, and to portray
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
as a "theory in crisis" and advocating teachers to "Teach the Controversy" through the
CSCThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
. It has employed a number of specific political strategies and tactics in the furtherance of its goals. These range from attempts at the state level to undermine or remove altogether the presence of evolutionary theory from the public school classroom, to having the federal government mandate the teaching of intelligent design, to 'stacking' municipal, county and state school boards with ID proponents. The Discovery Institute has been a significant player in many of these cases, through the CSC providing a range of support from material assistance to federal, state and regional elected representatives in the drafting of bills to supporting and advising individual parents confronting their school boards.
Some of the political battles which have involved the Discovery Institute include:
- Kansas evolution hearings
The Kansas Evolution Hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas, United States May 5 to May 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school...
- Santorum Amendment
The Santorum Amendment was an amendment to the 2001 education funding bill which became known as the No Child Left Behind Act, proposed by former Republican United States Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania, which promotes the teaching of intelligent design while questioning the academic...
- Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688, was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of...
- the Dover, PennsylvaniaDover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,815 at the 2000 census.-History:James Joner purchased in 1764 and laid out the town of Dover...
intelligent design controversy
In 2004 the institute opened an office in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, and in 2005 the Discovery Institute hired
Creative Response ConceptsCreative Response Concepts Public Relations is an American public relations firm best known for helping to devise the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential race....
, the same
public relationsPublic relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment...
firm to promote its intelligent design campaign that promoted the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, the
Republican National CommitteeThe Republican National Committee provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is also responsible for organizing and...
, the Christian Coalition, and the
Contract With AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter who was aided by...
. Creative Response Concepts scored an early victory for the institute in getting the New York Times to publish an essay by Roman Catholic
Cardinal SchönbornChristoph Schönborn, OP is an Austrian Cardinal of the Catholic Church and theologian. He currently serves as Archbishop of Vienna and President of the Austrian Bishops' Conference...
, archbishop of
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, condemning evolution, against church teaching and the long-standing Catholic idea that God and evolution are compatible. The essay,
Finding Design in Nature, submitted directly to The Times by Creative Response Concepts, was prompted by the institute's vice president Mark Ryland.
Campaign-related websites operated by the Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute has registered over two hundred website domain names. More than a dozen are related to the institute's campaigns promoting intelligent design. The use of these sites is often in conjunction other intelligent design-related sites registered and operated by Discovery Institute Fellows and associates. William Dembski, for example, registered and operates
UncommonDescent.com,
OverwhelmingEvidence.com, and
DesignInference.com while the institute's Casey Luskin set up
IdeaCenter.org; all link to each other.
Cascadia Center
Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center for Regional Development (former Cascadia project) focuses on regional transportation. The Cascadia Project started in 1992 with Bruce Agnew, former Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative
John MillerJohn Ripin Miller , an American politician, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1985 to 1993. He represented the of Washington as a Republican.Miller did not run for re-election in 1992...
, serving as the director. In 2003, Thomas Till was brought in as Managing Director, after leaving his post as Executive Director of the Amtrak Reform Council.
Cascadia attempts to forge alliances between local governments to ease traffic congestion in the Pacific Northwest, utilizing focus groups as well as forming citizen panels and public forums. In conjunction with
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
, Cascadia sponsored a session involving elected officials, entrepreneurs and public policy experts including Washington State Representative
Dave ReichertDavid George Reichert is a member of the United States Congress and the former Sheriff of King County, Washington. He has served since 2005 as the Republican Congressional representative of...
and former CIA director James Woolsey to discuss varying proposals for securing U.S. ports and diversifying America's energy portfolio.
The Cascadia project is funded in part by a large grant from the
Gates FoundationThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The foundation is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...
. It recently created its own Web site to ensure an individual identity and distance itself from the institute's controversial role in promoting intelligent design.
Bioethics
Discovery Institute's Bioethics program is headed up by Senior Fellow
Wesley J. SmithWesley J. Smith is a lawyer and an award winning author, a Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture...
. Formerly a
Ralph NaderRalph Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and former candidate for President of the United States. He ran as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection,...
collaborator, Smith is also an attorney, author of several books, and a frequent contributor to the conservative publications
The Weekly StandardThe Weekly Standard is a American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It was founded by News Corporation and made its debut on September 18, 1995. Its current editors are founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard produces The Daily Standard with...
and
National ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
. Smith coined the term
human exceptionalismHuman exceptionalism refers to a belief that human beings have special status in nature based on their unique capacities. This belief is the grounding for some naturalistic concepts of human rights....
. Research issues include
euthanasiaEuthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner. Many different forms of euthanasia can be distinguished, including animal euthanasia and human euthanasia, and within the latter, voluntary and involuntary euthanasia...
,
right to lifeRight to life is a phrase that describes the belief that a human being has an essential right to live, particularly that a human being has the right not to be killed by another human being...
,
animal rightsAnimal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans...
and a related constellation of topics.
Technology & Democracy
The Technology and Democracy Project (TDP), has been a part of the Discovery Institute since the beginning; founded by Senior Fellow George Gilder. The project supports technology as a force for economic growth and advocates freeing technological advancement from government regulation. It utilizes national publications, speeches, conferences and public testimony to lobby for pro-technology and pro-free enterprise policies. The Technology and Democracy Project supports pushing deregulation to the forefront of the national debate and maintains a blog, disco-tech.org, where senior fellows comment on a wide range of issues.
The Real Russia Project
The Real Russia Project provides analysis and commentary on the future of democracy in Russia through its internet portal, 'RussiaBlog.' In addition to maintaining the weblog, the program organizes conferences and events to address current events and daily public life in Russia (i.e. the killings of
Anna PolitkovskayaAnna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author and human rights activist well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-Russian President Vladimir Putin...
and
Alexander LitvinenkoAlexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
, U.S.-Russian business relations, etc).
C. S. Lewis & Public Life
The C. S. Lewis & Public Life program is part of the Discovery Institute's Religion, Liberty & Public Life program which seeks to define and promote the role of religion in society. It says what "the proper role of religion is in a free society" is the "animating question behind Discovery's program on religion and civic life."
The C. S. Lewis & Public Life program provides analysis and commentary on the writings and thinking of
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
, a noted Christian apologist, and how they can influence public policy. Included in the program is
The Lewis Legacy Online, a quarterly journal edited by Kathryn Lindskoog and the online archive,
C. S. Lewis Writings in the Public Domain, which includes the full text of
Spirits in Bondage, letters from Lewis, his will, a list of the ten books that influenced him most, and more.
Controversy
The evolution of Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman and Senior Fellow George Gilder from liberal Republicans criticizing their party for alienating intellectuals in the 1960s to running a conservative think tank whose main thrust has been to seek the undermining of evolution through campaigns like
Teach the ControversyTeach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while discrediting evolution in United States public high school science courses...
has prompted
Chris MooneyChristopher Cole Mooney is a U.S. journalist who focuses on science in politics.He is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect and a contributing editor for Science Progress. Additionally, he maintains a weblog, The Intersection, with Sheril Kirshenbaum and writes an online column named...
to write in his book
The Republican War on ScienceThe Republican War on Science is a book by Chris C. Mooney, an American journalist who focuses on the politics of science policy. In the book, Mooney discusses the Republican Party leadership's stance on science, and in particular that of the George W...
:
Religious agenda
Although it often describes itself as a secular organization, critics, members of the press and former institute fellows consider the Discovery Institute to be an explicitly conservative Christian organization, and point to the institute's own publications and the statements of its members that endorse a religious ideology.
Americans United for Separation of Church and StateAmericans United for Separation of Church and State is a group which advocates separation of church and state, a legal doctrine interpreted by AU as being enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Mission:The guiding principle of Americans...
notes, "Though the Discovery Institute describes itself as a think tank 'specializing in national and international affairs,' the group's real purpose is to undercut church-state separation and turn public schools into religious indoctrination centers." The 2005 judge in the "Dover Trial",
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688, was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of...
, came to a similar conclusion about the Institute in his ruling: "CSRC expressly announces, in the Wedge Document, a program of Christian apologetics to promote ID. A careful review of the Wedge Document's goals and language throughout the document reveals cultural and religious goals, as opposed to scientific ones."
As evidence of the institute's organized campaign to mask or downplay its religious origins and agenda, critics point to the Discovery Institute's renaming of its
Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture to
Center for Science and Culture in 2002 to avoid religious overtones implied with trying to "renew" society. They claim the name change "followed hard on the heels of accusations that the center's real interest was not science but reforming culture along lines favored by conservative Christians". As further evidence that the institute is promoting a Christian agenda, observers of the institute also point to the fact that the Discovery Institute' members are largely outspoken Christians, who are promoting an explicitly Christian agenda, funded largely by conservative Christians, catering to an almost exclusively Christian constituency.
Nina Shapiro in the Seattle Weekly article,
The New Creationists, cites Bruce Chapman when she wrote that behind all Discovery Institute programs there is an underlying hidden religious agenda:
Several Discovery Institute fellows have left the institute over its religious positions and campaigns, such as political scientist Donald Hellmann, described by the Seattle Metropolitan as a "disillusioned former Discovery Fellow." Another former senior fellow, Philip Gold, resigned his post as a defense analyst with the institute in 2002, says the institute had grown increasingly religious. "It evolved from a policy institute that had a religious focus to an organization whose primary mission is Christian conservatism." One controversy erupted when it was made public in the online journal Salon that, in the summer of 2000, Discovery Institute President Chapman advised a breakaway faction of Episcopalians opposed to the ordination of gays on how to fund their desired
schismThe word schism , from the Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , means a split or a division, usually in an organization or a movement. A schismatic is a person who creates or incites schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group...
from the mainline denomination and suggested that funds from multi-millionaire and institute board member Howard Ahmanson, who was also a fellow Episcopalian, might be available for this task. In a memo Chapman sent to fellow dissident Episcopalians he stated that for their campaign to succeed fund-raising was critical, but "is going to be affected greatly by whether we have a clear, compelling forward strategy" and "the Ahmansons are only going to be available to us if we have such a strategy and I think it would be wise to involve them directly in settling on it...." In 2000 and 2001 Chapman was successful in securing more than $1 million from Ahmanson for the Anglican Council, but is no longer personally involved in the schism in the American Episcopal community; Chapman converted to Catholicism in 2002.
Misrepresentation of agenda
At the foundation of most criticism of the Discovery Institute is the charge that the institute and its Center for Science and Culture intentionally misrepresent or omit many important facts in promoting their agenda.
Intellectual dishonestyIntellectual dishonesty is dishonesty in performing intellectual activities like thought or communication. Examples are:* the advocacy of a position which the advocate knows or believes to be false or misleading...
, in the form of misleading impressions created by the use of rhetoric, intentional ambiguity, and misrepresented evidence, form the foundation of most of the criticisms of the institute. It is alleged that its goal is to lead an unwary public to reach certain conclusions, and that many have been deceived as a result. Its critics, such as
Eugenie ScottEugenie Carol Scott is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education since 1987...
,
Robert PennockRobert Pennock may refer to:* Robert Pennock , Canadian politician* Robert T. Pennock, philosopher...
,
Richard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL is a British ethologist, zoologist, Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist and theorist and a popular science author....
and
Barbara ForrestBarbara Carroll Forrest is professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She has been a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute.- Biography :...
, claim that the Discovery Institute knowingly misquotes scientists and other experts, deceptively omits contextual text through
ellipsisEllipsis is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...
, and makes unsupported amplifications of relationships and credentials, and are often said to claim support from scientists when no such support exists. A wide spectrum of critics level this charge; from educators, scientists, and the
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines...
, to individuals who oppose the teaching of creationism alongside science on ideological grounds. Specific objections with examples are listed at the
Center for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
article.
This criticism is not limited to those in the scientific community that oppose the teaching of intelligent design and the suppression of evolution, but also includes former Discovery Institute donors. The
Bullitt FoundationThe Bullitt Foundation is a foundation established in 1952 by Dorothy S. Bullitt, who founded King Broadcasting Company in Seattle. Its assets in the late 1990s were in excess of US$100M ....
, which gave $10,000 in 2001 for transportation causes, withdrew all funding of the institute; its director, Denis Hayes, called the institute "the institutional love child of
Ayn RandAyn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
and
Jerry FalwellJerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an American evangelical Christian pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
," and said, "I can think of no circumstances in which the Bullitt Foundation would fund anything at Discovery today."
The
Wedge documentThe wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document, which describes a broad social, political, and academic agenda whose...
, a widely circulated 1998 fund-raising document, laid out Discovery's original, ambitious plan to "drive a wedge" into the heart of "scientific materialism," "thereby divorcing science from its purely observational and naturalistic methodology and reversing the deleterious effects of evolution on Western culture." The two governing goals of the Wedge document are:
- To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies
- To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God
Meyer says that the Wedge document "was stolen from our offices and placed on the Web without permission." The central item of this agenda - establishing intelligent design as legitimate science through conducting actual scientific research - has not been achieved.
Michelle Goldberg has said "... the Center for Science and Culture takes creationism and tries to legitimize it in scientific terms, and make it sound as if it’s really just a kind of competing scientific theory. It hires people with a lot of impressive degrees, although, in many cases, they got the degrees specifically with the idea of using them to discredit Darwinism for religious reasons. It’ll put someone forward like Jonathan Wells, who has a Ph.D. from Berkeley, and yet here he is, defending intelligent design. So they’ve given a lot of thought to packaging intelligent design to make it seem like legitimate science. And they’ve given a lot of thought to how to try to infiltrate their ideas into the culture."
Templeton Foundation
According to a New York Times article, The Templeton Foundation, who provided grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design, later asked intelligent design proponents to submit proposals for actual research. Charles L. Harper Jr., senior vice president at the Templeton Foundation, was quoted as saying "They never came in." He also said that while he was skeptical from the beginning, other foundation officials were initially intrigued and later grew disillusioned. "From the point of view of
rigorRigour or rigor has a number of meanings in relation to intellectual life and discourse. These are separate from public and political applications with their suggestion of laws enforced to the letter, or political absolutism...
and intellectual seriousness, the intelligent design people don't come out very well in our world of scientific review," he said. The Templeton Foundation has since rejected the Discovery Institute's entreaties for more funding, Harper states. "They're political - that for us is problematic," and that while Discovery has "always claimed to be focused on the science," "what I see is much more focused on public policy, on public persuasion, on educational advocacy and so forth."
In 2007 in the LA Times Pamela Thompson, Vice President for Communications of the Templeton Foundation wrote "We do not believe that the science underpinning the intelligent-design movement is sound, we do not support research or programs that deny large areas of well-documented scientific knowledge, and the foundation is a nonpolitical entity and does not engage in or support political movements."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-letters4.2feb04,1,4960042.story?coll=la-headlines-business The same day the Wall Street Journal also included a letter from the same Pamela Thompson making much the same point: "The foundation doesn't support the political movement known as 'Intelligent Design.' This is for three reasons: We don't believe the science underpinning the 'Intelligent Design' movement is sound, we don't support research or programs that deny large areas of well-documented scientific knowledge and the foundation is a non-political entity and does not engage in, or support, political movements."
http://online.wsj.com/page/2_0048.html
In February 2007 the Discovery Institute began a campaign to counter the unfavorable statements of Harper and Thompson citing a "report" published on the intelligent design
wikiA wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser...
, ResearchID. This campaign quoted clarifications from Charles Harper of the Templeton Foundation denouncing intelligent design and distancing the Templeton Foundation from the intelligent design movement, notably a clarification by Harper that a Wall Street Journal article published "false information" that "mention[ed] the John Templeton Foundation in a way suggesting that the Foundation has been a concerted patron and sponsor of the so-called Intelligent Design ("ID") position," ResearchID and Discovery Institute claimed that this was indicative of larger errors and bias: "The media has misrepresented the record of the intelligent design research community." Critics of intelligent design responded by noting that though Harper appears to have "confirmed that while the first statement about a formal call for applications was false, the real point of the article, that ID advocates don't do very well in terms of actual research and scientific review, remains true and valid" a point the Discovery Institute glosses over. The Templeton Foundation posted a response to the Discovery Institute's campaign, saying:
Judge Jones
Controversy was stirred up again in December 2006 by the Discovery Institute and its fellows publishing several articles describing a "study" performed by the Discovery Institute criticizing the judge in the
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688, was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of...
trial. It claims that "90.9% of
Judge JonesJohn Edward Jones III is an American lawyer and jurist from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A Republican, Jones was appointed by President George W. Bush as federal judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in February 2002 and was unanimously confirmed by...
’ [opinion] on intelligent design as science was taken virtually verbatim from the
ACLUThe American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying...
’s proposed 'Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law' submitted to Judge Jones nearly a month before his ruling." The study, though making no specific allegations of wrongdoing, implies that Judge Jones relied upon the plaintiff's submissions in writing his own conclusions of law.
Within a day, the president of the York County Bar Association had pointed out that parties are required by the courts to submit findings of fact and "a judge can adopt some, all or none of the proposed findings." She added that in the final ruling, a judge's decision "is the judge's findings and it doesn't matter who submitted them". A partner in a York law firm said that "Any attempt to make a stink out of it is absurd."
Several commentators pointed out that Jones' use of the plaintiff's submissions were limited to his opinion, not his conclusion of law, and that "Vice President for Legal Affairs John West is not a lawyer, so he may not be familiar with the fact that this is exactly what proposed findings of fact are for. They are proposed findings which a judge, if he or she agrees, then incorporates as his or her own findings. ... The press release suggests that Judge Jones did something improper in adopting the plaintiffs’ proposed findings as his own—but that is just what a judge does when he finds that the party has proven its case." Others noted that the institute's reliance on
MS WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , Atari ST , SCO UNIX, OS/2, and Microsoft...
's "Word Count" function to conduct their study was flawed and resulted in inflated numbers, and that the bulk of the document Discovery studied was written by the law firm of
Pepper Hamilton LLPPepper Hamilton LLP is a U.S. law firm with 11 offices and more than 500 attorneys. The firm is ranked among the 100 largest firms by revenue in the United States...
, not the ACLU. Witold Walczak, legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the ACLU's lead attorney on the case called the Institute's report a stunt: "They're getting no traction in the scientific world so they're trying to do something ... as a PR stunt to get attention, ... That's not how scientists work, ... Discovery Institute is trying to litigate a year-old case in the media." He also said the Discovery Institute staff is not, as it claims, interested in finding scientific truths; it is more interested in a "cultural war," pushing for intelligent design and publicly criticizing a judge.
A subsequent study was performed by Wesley Elsberry, author of the text comparison program that was partly responsible for the decision in the case, indicated that only 38% of the complete ruling by Judge Jones actually incorporated the findings of fact and conclusions of law that the plaintiffs proposed that he incorporate, and only 66% of the section (on whether intelligent design was science) incorporated the proposals, not the 90.9% the Discovery Institute claimed was copied in that section. Significantly, Judge Jones adopted only 48% of the plaintiffs’s proposed findings of fact for that section, and rejected 52%, clearly showing that he did not accept the section verbatim.
Intelligent design-related websites
The Discovery Institute has registered over two hundred website domain names.
The use of these sites is often in conjunction other
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
-related sites registered and operated by Discovery Institute Fellows and associates. William Dembski, for example, registered and operates
UncommonDescent.com,
OverwhelmingEvidence.com, and
DesignInference.com while the institute's Casey Luskin set up
IdeaCenter.org.
- IntelligentDesign.org
- EvolutionNews.org
- IDTheFuture.com
- DissentFromDarwin.org
- DarwinAndDesign.com
- DarwinismAndID.com
- IconsofEvolution.com
- FromDarwinToHitler.com
- PriviledgedPlanet.com
- DarwinDayInAmerica.com
- JudgingPBS.com
- FaithAndEvolution.org
Funding
The institute is a non-profit educational foundation funded by philanthropic foundation grants, corporate and individual contributions and the dues of Institute members. Contributions made to it are tax deductible, as provided by law.
The institute does not provide details about its backers, out of "harassment" fears according to Chapman..
In 2003, a review of tax documents on
GuideStarGuideStar USA, Inc. is an information service specializing in U.S. nonprofit companies. It provides information on more than 1.7 million IRS-recognized nonprofit organizations. GuideStar was founded in Williamsburg, Virginia, in September 1994 and received tax-exempt status in 1996.GuideStar was...
showed grants and gifts totalling $1.4 million in 1997. Included in the supporters were 22 foundations. At least two-thirds of these foundations stated explicitly religious missions.
In 2001, the Baptist Press reported, "Discovery Institute ... with its $4 million annual budget ($1.2 million of which is for the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture) is heavily funded by evangelical Christians. Maclellan Foundation of Chattanooga, Tenn., for example, awarded $350,000 to the institute with the hope researchers would be able to prove evolution to be a false theory. Fieldstead & Co., owned by Howard and Robert Ahmanson of Irvine, Calif., pledged $2.8 million through 2003 to support the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture."
Most Discovery Institute donors have also contributed significantly to the
Bush campaignThis article is about the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the former President of the United States and winner of the 2004 Presidential Election. See George W. Bush for a detailed biography and information about his full presidency, and George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 for a...
.
In 2005, the Washington Post reported, 'Meyer said the institute accepts money from such wealthy conservatives as Howard Ahmanson Jr., who once said his goal is "the total integration of biblical law into our lives," and the Maclellan Foundation, which commits itself to "the infallibility of the Scripture." '
According to
Charity NavigatorCharity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
, in FYE 2005, the Discovery Institute had $2,989,608 in total revenue and $3,878,186 in expenses.
The Discovery Institute denies allegations that its intelligent design agenda is religious, and downplays the religious source of much of its funding. In an interview of
Stephen C. MeyerThis page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
when ABC News' asked about the Discovery Institute's many evangelical Christian donors the institute's public relations representative stopped the interview saying "I don't think we want to go down that path."
Though in the minority, funding also comes from non-conservative sources: The
Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The foundation is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...
gave $1 million in 2000 and pledged $9.35 million over 10 years in 2003, including $50,000 of
Bruce Chapman'sBruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...
$141,000 annual salary. The money of the Gates Foundation grant is "exclusive to the Cascadia project" on regional transportation, according to a Gates Foundation grant maker.
Published reports state that the institute has awarded $3.6 million in fellowships of $5,000 to $60,000 per year to 50 researchers since the CSC's founding in 1996. "I was one of the early beneficiaries of Discovery largess," says
William A. DembskiWilliam Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American mathematician, theologian, and professor of philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. . He is a prominent proponent of intelligent design, well-known for his "specified complexity" argument...
, who, during the three years after completing graduate school in 1996 could not secure a university position, received what he calls "a standard academic salary" of $40,000 a year through the institute.
Discovery Institute officers, directors and fellows
President
- Bruce Chapman
Bruce K. Chapman is the director and founder of the Discovery Institute, an American conservative think tank often associated with the religious right. He was previously a journalist, a Republican Party politician and a diplomat.- Political career :After graduating from Harvard University in 1962,...
Vice Presidents
- Steven J. Buri
- Stephen C. Meyer
This page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
Board of Directors
- Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
- Tom Alberg
- William Baldwin
- Christopher T. Bayley
- Bruce Chapman
- Robert J. Cihak
- Slade Gorton
Thomas Slade Gorton III is an American politician. A Republican, he was a U.S. senator from Washington state from 1981 until 1987, and then from 1989 until 2001. He held both of the state's Senate seats in his career and was narrowly defeated for reelection twice as an incumbent; in 1986 by Brock...
- Richard R. Greiling
- Robert J. Herbold
- Susan Hutchison
- Byron Nutley
- James Spady
- Michael K. Vaska
- Raymond J. Waldmann
- Michael Medved
Michael Medved is a American radio program host and is a conservative political commentator, film critic, and author. His Seattle-based nationally-syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the United States on Salem Radio Network.According to Talkers' Magazine, The Michael...
Program Advisor (CSC)
- Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian as a tenured professor. He is considered the father of the intelligent design movement, which rejects the theory of evolution, and promotes intelligent design, as an alternative. Johnson also...
Senior Fellows
- Robert J. Cihak
- George Gilder
George F. Gilder is an American writer, techno-utopian intellectual, Republican Party activist, and co-founder of the Discovery Institute...
- Hance Haney
- David Klinghoffer
David Klinghoffer is a controversial author and essayist, and a proponent of intelligent design. He is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute, the organization that is the driving force behind the intelligent design movement...
- Yuri Y. Mamchur
- Stephen C. Meyer
This page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer.Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement...
- Wesley J. Smith
Wesley J. Smith is a lawyer and an award winning author, a Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture...
- Bret Swanson
- William Tucker
- Jonathan Wells
- John G. West
John G. West is a Senior Fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute , and Associate Director and Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs of its Center for Science and Culture , which serves as the main hub of the Intelligent design movement.-Biography:West received an undergraduate...
- John Wohlstetter
Adjunct Fellows
- Howard L. Chapman
- Edwin Meese
Edwin "Ed" Meese III is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration , the Reagan Presidential Transition Team , and the Reagan White House , eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of the...
- Richard Rahn
- Robert Spitzer
Former Fellows
- Vincent Phillip Muñoz
- James J. Na
- Mark Ryland
See also
- Timeline of intelligent design
This timeline of intelligent design outlines the major events in the development of intelligent design as presented and promoted by the intelligent design movement.-Creationism and Creation science:...
- Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity
The Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity , formally registered as PSSI International Inc, is a nonprofit anti-evolution organization promoting intelligent design associated with the Discovery Institute, based in Clearwater, Florida...
External links
- Discovery Institute Official Web Site
- Evolution News Discovery Institute's intelligent design blog
- Discovery Institute's Frequently Asked Questions
- Despite Criticism, 'Intelligent Design' Finds Powerful Backers ABC News
- Discovery's Creation Roger Downey, Seattle Weekly, February 1, 2006.
- The Newest Evolution of Creationism Background on the evolution of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute. Barbara Forrest Ph.D. From Natural History, April, 2002, page 80
- The Wedge at Work: How Intelligent Design Creationism Is Wedging Its Way into the Cultural and Academic Mainstream Chapter 1 of the book Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics by Barbara Forrest, Ph.D. MIT Press, 2001
- Infidels.org article with further discussion and analysis on the Wedge strategy
- Does "Intelligent Design" Threaten the Definition of Science? John Roach. National Geographic News. April 27, 2005
- ID Advocates Turning the Media Off-Target The Panda's Thumb
- Methodological Naturalism and Philosophical Naturalism: Clarifying the Connection Barbara Forrest. 2000. Originally published in Philo, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2000), pp. 7-29.
- Discovery Institute's 2006 IRS Form 990 Form 990 is the annual reporting return that federally tax-exempt organizations must file with the IRS. It provides information on the Discovery Institute's mission, programs, and finances. (may require free registration to view)
- Intelligent Design: The God Lab, Celeste Biever New Scientist, 15 December 2006
Media