SOURCE: Wikipedia, 2020-10-15
This page last modified: 2023-05-29 20:38:50 -0700 (PST)
Not to be confused with National Institute for Discovery Science [Robert Bigelow].
The Discovery Institute (DI) is a politically conservative non-profit think tank based in Seattle, Washington, that advocates the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design (ID). The Discovery Institute was founded in 1990 as a non-profit offshoot of the Hudson Institute. The Discovery Institute's "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 these subjects when in fact there is no such controversy exists.
The Discovery Institute was founded in 1990 as a non-profit educational foundation and think tank as a branch 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.
Discovery Institute Press is the Discovery Institute's publishing arm 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 apologetic works in defense of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture Director Stephen C. Meyer.
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 promoting the pseudoscience of intelligent design associated with the Discovery Institute, based in Clearwater, Florida. While in the past, PSSI sponsored events promoting intelligent design and fundamentalist Christianity, it is currently largely inactive. The PSSI was established in early 2006 by Rich Akin. Geoffrey Simmons, Discovery Institute fellow, is one of the Directors of the PSSI.
The Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity (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.
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. Apologetic organizations promoting the event had hoped to fill all 7,700 seats in the Sun Dome. This meeting featured the Discovery Institute's Jonathan Wells and Fellow Michael Behe, and received local radio coverage. This rally was opposed by the organization Florida Citizens for Science.
Main article: Teach the Controversy
"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.
The scientific community and science education organizations have replied that there is no scientific controversy regarding the validity of evolution and that the controversy exists solely in terms of religion and politics. A federal court, along with the majority of scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, say the Discovery 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. 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".
Main article: Center for Science and Culture
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. 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."
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 (DI), a conservative Christian "think tank" in the United States. The CSC lobbies for the inclusion of creationism in the form of intelligent design (ID) in public-school science curricula as an explanation for the origins of life and the universe while trying to cast doubt on the theory of evolution. These positions have been rejected by the scientific community, which identifies intelligent design as pseudoscientific neo-creationism, whereas the theory of evolution is overwhelmingly accepted as a matter of scientific consensus.
The Center for Science and Culture serves as the hub of the intelligent design movement. Nearly all of prominent proponents of intelligent design are either CSC advisors, officers, or fellows. Stephen C. Meyer, a former Vice President of the Discovery Institute and founder of the CSC, serves as a Senior Fellow, and Phillip E. Johnson was the Program Advisor. Johnson is commonly presented as the movement's "father" and architect of the CRC's "wedge strategy" and the "Teach the Controversy" campaign, as well as the Santorum Amendment.
Creative Response Concepts (CRC) was hired by the Discovery Institute during the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial over teaching intelligent design in public schools.
See also: Focus on the Family | intelligent design
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