mataj
11-15-2005, 06:00 AM
http://interventionmag.com/Primary/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=47
. . .
What offends me more than anything is that Behe -- an excellent mainstream biochemist when it comes to laboratory science -- is unashamedly a prominent member of the board of the Discovery Institute. He recently took the heat for the Institute's Intelligent Design agenda for two days on the witness stand in a Pennsylvania federal courtroom, testifying on behalf of the former Dover, PA, public school board.
. . .
In my earlier examination of the Discovery Institute titled No Alternative to Evolution, I had written, "[The] Discovery Institute is home to anti-Darwin and anti-evolution scholars, pumping $3.6 million in fellowships of $5,000 to $60,000 per year to 50 researchers since its science center's founding in 1996. . . . The Discovery Institute issued a manifesto known as the Wedge Document. This manifesto seeks 'nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies' in favor of a 'broadly theistic understanding of nature.' In other words, pubic schools will be used to leverage the political agenda of the Institute’s backers to push America into a theocratic state."
The Discovery Institute's Wedge Document doesn't mince words about their well-funded religious agenda for America and how they plan to implement it. Its goals as stated by the Institute in the "Wedge Document" (http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html) are (in part):
Governing Goals
* 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 [emphasis added].
Five Year Goals
* To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific
research being done from the perspective of design theory.
* To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science.
* To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda.
Twenty Year Goals
* To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
* To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its influence in the fine arts.
* To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.
FIVE YEAR OBJECTIVES
* A major public debate between design theorists and Darwinists (by 2003)
* Thirty published books on design and its cultural implications (sex, gender issues, medicine, law, and religion)
* One hundred scientific, academic and technical articles by our fellows
* Significant coverage in national media:
* Cover story on major news magazine such as Time or Newsweek
* PBS show, such as Nova, treating design theory fairly
* Regular press coverage on developments in design theory
* Favorable op-ed pieces and columns on the design movement by 3rd party media
Spiritual & cultural renewal:
* Mainline renewal movements begin to appropriate insights from design theory, and to
repudiate theologies influenced by materialism
* Major Christian denomination(s) defend(s) traditional doctrine of creation & repudiate(s)
* Darwinism Seminaries increasingly recognize & repudiate naturalistic presuppositions
* Positive uptake in public opinion polls on issues such as sexuality, abortion and belief in
God
*Ten states begin to rectify ideological imbalance in their science curricula & include design theory
Although the Discovery Institute's Five Year Objectives were thwarted at the ballot box by the citizens of Dover, PA, the Institute has recently made gains in Kansas City where that "Intelligent Design" public school board has prevailed.
Clearly, The Discovery Institute is not just a harmless nut club. But what perplexes me is why a serious scientist like Behe would carry water for the treacherous Discovery Institute. Is it about money, ego, notoriety, sex, blackmail? What is it? Is it human evolution gone bad?
. . .
What offends me more than anything is that Behe -- an excellent mainstream biochemist when it comes to laboratory science -- is unashamedly a prominent member of the board of the Discovery Institute. He recently took the heat for the Institute's Intelligent Design agenda for two days on the witness stand in a Pennsylvania federal courtroom, testifying on behalf of the former Dover, PA, public school board.
. . .
In my earlier examination of the Discovery Institute titled No Alternative to Evolution, I had written, "[The] Discovery Institute is home to anti-Darwin and anti-evolution scholars, pumping $3.6 million in fellowships of $5,000 to $60,000 per year to 50 researchers since its science center's founding in 1996. . . . The Discovery Institute issued a manifesto known as the Wedge Document. This manifesto seeks 'nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies' in favor of a 'broadly theistic understanding of nature.' In other words, pubic schools will be used to leverage the political agenda of the Institute’s backers to push America into a theocratic state."
The Discovery Institute's Wedge Document doesn't mince words about their well-funded religious agenda for America and how they plan to implement it. Its goals as stated by the Institute in the "Wedge Document" (http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html) are (in part):
Governing Goals
* 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 [emphasis added].
Five Year Goals
* To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific
research being done from the perspective of design theory.
* To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science.
* To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda.
Twenty Year Goals
* To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
* To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its influence in the fine arts.
* To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.
FIVE YEAR OBJECTIVES
* A major public debate between design theorists and Darwinists (by 2003)
* Thirty published books on design and its cultural implications (sex, gender issues, medicine, law, and religion)
* One hundred scientific, academic and technical articles by our fellows
* Significant coverage in national media:
* Cover story on major news magazine such as Time or Newsweek
* PBS show, such as Nova, treating design theory fairly
* Regular press coverage on developments in design theory
* Favorable op-ed pieces and columns on the design movement by 3rd party media
Spiritual & cultural renewal:
* Mainline renewal movements begin to appropriate insights from design theory, and to
repudiate theologies influenced by materialism
* Major Christian denomination(s) defend(s) traditional doctrine of creation & repudiate(s)
* Darwinism Seminaries increasingly recognize & repudiate naturalistic presuppositions
* Positive uptake in public opinion polls on issues such as sexuality, abortion and belief in
God
*Ten states begin to rectify ideological imbalance in their science curricula & include design theory
Although the Discovery Institute's Five Year Objectives were thwarted at the ballot box by the citizens of Dover, PA, the Institute has recently made gains in Kansas City where that "Intelligent Design" public school board has prevailed.
Clearly, The Discovery Institute is not just a harmless nut club. But what perplexes me is why a serious scientist like Behe would carry water for the treacherous Discovery Institute. Is it about money, ego, notoriety, sex, blackmail? What is it? Is it human evolution gone bad?