Discovery Institute

The Discovery Institute (DI) is a politically conservative<ref name="wilgoren"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="lrb">Template:Cite journal</ref> think tank that advocates the pseudoscientific concept<ref name="Boudry 2010">Template:Cite journal Article available from Universiteit Gent Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> of intelligent design (ID). It was founded in 1991<ref name="di_about">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Seattle as a non-profit offshoot of the Hudson Institute.

Its "Teach the Controversy" campaign aims to permit the teaching of anti-evolution, intelligent-design beliefs in United States public high school science courses in place of accepted scientific theories, positing that a scientific controversy exists over whether evolution is a reality, when in fact there is none.<ref name="ForrestMay2007Paper">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="abc_wnt">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Mooney_2002">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="teachingID">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

The institute was cofounded in 1991 by Bruce Chapman and George Gilder as a non-profit educational foundation and think tank.<ref name=di_about /> It was started as a branch organization of the Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based conservative think tank. It is named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Discovery in which George Vancouver explored Puget Sound in 1792.<ref name="abriefhistory">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The organization was incorporated in 1991.

Discovery Institute Press

Discovery Institute Press is the institute's publishing arm<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and has published intelligent design books by its fellows including David Berlinski's Deniable Darwin & Other Essays (2010), Jonathan Wells' The Myth of Junk DNA (2011) and an edited volume titled Signature Of Controversy, which contains apologetics in defense of the institute's Center for Science and Culture director Stephen C. Meyer.

Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity

The Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity (PSSI), formally registered as PSSI International Inc., is a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit anti-evolution organization, based in Clearwater, Florida, promoting the pseudoscience of intelligent design associated with the Discovery Institute. While in the past, the organization sponsored events promoting intelligent design and fundamentalist Christianity, it is currently largely inactive.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The PSSI was established in early 2006 by Rich Akin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Geoffrey Simmons, Discovery Institute fellow, is one of the directors of the PSSI.

The PSSI created a public list of medical professionals who dissent from Darwinism. This list is used by the Discovery Institute in its anti-evolution campaigns. The list is used in support of the Discovery Institute claims that intelligent design is scientifically valid while asserting that evolution lacks broad scientific support.<ref>Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals; A Position Paper from the Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy Template:Webarchive Barbara Forrest. May, 2007.</ref>

The PSSI, which was active between 2006 and 2008, held a "Doctors Doubting Darwin" rally at the University of South Florida's Sun Dome in September 2006. Attendance was estimated at 3,500 to 4,000 people by a local reporter.<ref name=Tippins> Evolution: A Theory in Crisis Template:Webarchive, Hank Tippins, Tippin the Scales, The Observer News, Tampa Bay, Florida, October 21, 2006.</ref> Apologetic organizations promoting the event had hoped to fill all 7,700 seats in the Sun Dome.<ref>Recent Events Archive: Apologetics Events in the U.S. and Beyond Template:Webarchive, apologetics.org.</ref><ref>September 23, 2006 - News Template:Webarchive, Texans for Better Science Education Newsletter, Sept 23, 2006.</ref> This meeting featured the Discovery Institute's Jonathan Wells and fellow Michael Behe, and received local radio coverage. This rally was opposed by the Florida Citizens for Science.<ref>Florida Citizens for Science Template:Webarchive official webpage</ref><ref>Doomed in the Dome Template:Webarchive, Red State Rabble blog, September 28, 2006.</ref>

Teach the Controversy

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Teach the Controversy is a campaign conducted by the Discovery Institute to promote the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit the teaching of evolution in United States public high school science courses.<ref name=ForrestMayPaper>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Small Group Wields Major Influence in Intelligent Design Debate Template:Webarchive ABC News, November 9, 2005</ref><ref>"ID's home base is the Center for Science and Culture at Seattle's conservative Discovery Institute. Meyer directs the center; former Reagan adviser Bruce Chapman heads the larger institute, with input from the Christian supply-sider and former American Spectator owner George Gilder (also a Discovery senior fellow). From this perch, the ID crowd has pushed a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution that closely influenced the Ohio State Board of Education's recently proposed science standards, which would require students to learn how scientists "continue to investigate and critically analyze" aspects of Darwin's theory." Chris Mooney. The American Prospect. December 2, 2002 Survival of the Slickest: How anti-evolutionists are mutating their message Template:Webarchive</ref>

The scientific community and science education organizations have replied that there is no scientific controversy regarding the validity of evolution and that the controversy is a religious and political one.<ref name="nejm"/><ref name="AAAS"/><ref name="nap">"Such controversies as do exist concern the details of the mechanisms of evolution, not the validity of the over-arching theory of evolution, which is one of the best supported theories in all of science." Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences, Second Edition Template:Webarchive United States National Academy of Sciences</ref> A federal court, along with the majority of scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, say the institute has manufactured the controversy they want to teach by promoting a "false perception" that evolution is "a theory in crisis" by falsely claiming it is the subject of wide controversy and debate within the scientific community.<ref name="nejm">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=AAAS>"Some bills seek to discredit evolution by emphasizing so-called "flaws" in the theory of evolution or "disagreements" within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one." AAAS Statement on the Teaching of Evolution Template:Webarchive American Association for the Advancement of Science. February 16, 2006</ref><ref name="kitzmiller_pg89">"ID's backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard." Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, page 89</ref><ref>Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals. A Position Paper from the Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy Template:Webarchive Barbara Forrest. May, 2007.</ref> In the December 2005 ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Judge John E. Jones III concluded that intelligent design is not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents".<ref>Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Conclusion (pages 136-138)</ref>

Wedge strategy

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Wedge Strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the institute. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the "Wedge Document". Its goal is to change American culture by shaping public policy to reflect politically conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical Protestant values. The wedge metaphor is attributed to Phillip E. Johnson and depicts a metal wedge splitting a log. In Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails) the authors wrote "Although its religious orientation is explicit, the long-term plan outlined in the Wedge Document also displays the Discovery Institute's political agenda very clearly. In ten years, the Wedge strategy was to be extended to ethics, politics, theology; the humanities, and the arts. The ultimate goal of the Discovery Institute is to 'overthrow' materialism and 'renew' American culture to reflect right-wing Christian values."<ref name="Young">Template:Cite book</ref>

Center for Science and Culture

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute, beside other connected sites, such as Mind Matters,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> operated by the non-profit Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> at Discovery Institute. It publishes the blog Evolution News & Science Today (formerly Evolution News & Views and often shortened to Evolution News (EN)), that promotes "a rigorously God-centered view of creation, including a new 'science' based solidly on theism."<ref>*Template:Cite book</ref>

Other issues

Homelessness

Christopher Rufo, an activist who later opposed the teaching of critical race theory, wrote frequently on the subject of homelessness while he worked for the Discovery Institute.<ref name="nymag-2021-07">Template:Cite news</ref> In his 2018 Discovery Institute-funded policy paper "Seattle Under Siege: How Seattle's Homelessness Policy Perpetuates the Crisis and How We Can Fix It," Rufo said that four groupsTemplate:Emdash"socialist intellectuals", "compassion brigades", the "homeless-industrial complex", and the "addiction evangelists"Template:Emdashhad successfully framed the debate on homelessness and diverted funding to their projects.<ref name="Walker_20181102">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Rufo_20181016">Template:Cite report</ref> He described how the "compassion brigade" had called for social justice using terms such as "compassion, empathy, bias, inequality, root causes, systemic racism."<ref name="Rufo_20181016"/> Rufo brought negative attention to All Home, which at the time was King County, Washington's homelessness agency, by sharing a video of a stripper performing at a conference on homelessness. All Home's director was placed on administrative leave and resigned shortly thereafter.<ref name="sacbee-2019-12">Template:Cite news</ref>

Caitlin Bassett of the Discovery Institute has contributed opinion articles that criticize governmental response to homelessness as wasteful and counterproductive to the goal of ending homelessness. The Discovery Institute opposes the Housing First approach, preferring to prioritize treating homeless people for mental illness or drug addiction.<ref name="psbj-2022-03">Template:Cite news</ref>

2020 United States presidential election

Scott S. Powell, a senior fellow of the Institute, has promoted the false claim that the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Climate change

The Discovery Institute website has posted articles denying the scientific consensus on climate change.<ref name=":0" />

See also

• Creation and evolution in public education in the United States
• Hudson Institute
• Timeline of intelligent design

Further reading

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External links

• Template:Official website
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• Discovery Institute on C-SPAN
• Discovery institute on YouTube