Discovery Institute

A Discovery Institute egy Seattle-ben (Washington állam) működő keresztény konzervatív agytröszt, mely leginkább az intelligens tervezés nézetének terjesztéséről ismert. Nevéhez köthető többek között a „Tanítsd a vitát” kampány is, melynek célja kreacionista, evolúcióellenes nézetek felvétele az amerikai közoktatásának természettudományos tananyagába.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

A tudományos közvélemény és egy szövetségi bírósági döntés szerint az intézet mesterséges viták fabrikálásával igyekszik azt a hamis látszatot kelteni, hogy az evolúció „válságban lévő elmélet”, azt a téves benyomást keltve, hogy az evolúció érvényességét széles tudományos egyetnemértés jellemzi.^[6][7][8] A Kitzmiller kontra doveri iskolaszék per ítélete szerint a Discovery Institute „bizonyíthatóan vallási, kulturális és jogi indíttatású célok” megvalósítására törekszik,^[9] Ékstratégia nevű kiáltványában célját a következőképpen határozza meg:

• „legyőzni a tudományos materializmust és annak morális, kulturális és politikai örökségét”^[10][11]
• „lecserélni a materialista magyarázatokat a természet és az ember teista értelmezésével, az Isten általi teremtéssel”.^[12][13][14]

Jegyzetek

1. Forrest, Barbara: Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals. A Position Paper from the Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy. Center for Inquiry, Inc., 2007. május 1. [2011. május 19-i dátummal az eredetiből archiválva]. (Hozzáférés: 2007. augusztus 6.).
2. Small Group Wields Major Influence in Intelligent Design Debate ABC News, November 9 2005
3. "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. Archived from the original on 2002-12-18.
4. Teaching Intelligent Design: What Happened When? by William A. Dembski "The clarion call of the intelligent design movement is to "teach the controversy." There is a very real controversy centering on how properly to account for biological complexity (cf. the ongoing events in Kansas), and it is a scientific controversy."
5. Nick Matzke's analysis shows how teaching the controversy using the Critical Analysis of Evolution model lesson plan is a means of teaching all the intelligent design arguments without using the intelligent design label.No one here but us Critical Analysis-ists... Archiválva 2015. szeptember 6-i dátummal a Wayback Machine-ben Nick Matzke. The Panda's Thumb, July 11 2006
6. "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
7. "That this controversy is one largely manufactured by the proponents of creationism and intelligent design may not matter, and as long as the controversy is taught in classes on current affairs, politics, or religion, and not in science classes, neither scientists nor citizens should be concerned." Intelligent Judging — Evolution in the Classroom and the Courtroom Archiválva 2009. szeptember 20-i dátummal a Wayback Machine-ben George J. Annas, New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 354:2277-2281 May 25, 2006
8. "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 American Association for the Advancement of Science. February 16, 2006
9. Ruling, page 131 Kitzmiller v. Dover.
10. WebArchive - http://www.discovery.org/crsc/aboutcrsc.html What is The Center for the Renewal of Science & Culture All About? elérés: 2008. március 26.

    „The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built. […] Debunking the traditional conceptions of both God and man, thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud portrayed human beings not as eternal and accountable beings, but as animals or machines […] Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its damning cultural legacies.”

11. The Discovery Institute's "Wedge Document" elérés: 2008. március 29.

    „To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.” […]

    „Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies. Bringing together leading scholars from the natural sciences and those from the humanities and social sciences, the Center explores how new developments in biology, physics and cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of nature.”

12. The Discovery Institute's "Wedge Document" elérés: 2008. március 29.

    „To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and hurnan beings are created by God.” […]

    „We are building on this momentum, broadening the wedge with a positive scientific alternative to materialistic scientific theories, which has come to be called the theory of intelligent design (ID). Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.”

13. "Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions." … "If we view the predominant materialistic science as a giant tree, our strategy is intended to function as a "wedge" that, while relatively small, can split the trunk when applied at its weakest points."Wedge Strategy Discovery Institute, 1999. The institute's response to the leaking of the Wedge strategy, The "Wedge Document": So What? Archiválva 2008. április 28-i dátummal a Wayback Machine-ben raises the same objection to the materialistic worldview: "We think the materialist world-view that has dominated Western intellectual life since the 19th century is false and we want to refute it. We further want to reverse the influence of such materialistic thinking on our culture."
14. Jake, Tapper. „McCain Speech Tied to Intelligent Design Group Draws Fire”, ABC News, 2007. február 22. (Hozzáférés: 2007. december 5.)