Can
You Say Hidden Agenda?
By Jason Miller
07 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
"In 1998, members of a Seattle
nonprofit think tank drafted a secret five-year plan with an ambitious
goal: to "defeat scientific materialism" and "replace
materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature
and human beings are created by God."
Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based
think tank which champions socially conservative causes, has become
heavily invested in the "debate" between Darwinists and those
who wish to introduce Intelligent Design into public school classrooms.
According to their Website,
Discovery's stated mission is:
... to make a positive
vision of the future practical. The Institute discovers and promotes
ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government, the
free market and individual liberty.
Finding a handful of academics
willing to act as its shills, Discovery's ultimate goal is to subvert
the prevailing paradigm of modern science (which they refer to as "materialism")
and replace it "with a science consonant with Christian and theistic
convictions".
In an internal document called
the Wedge
(click the link or continue reading this piece to view the Wedge Strategy
in its entirety) which was uncovered in 1999, Discovery was highly specific
in stating its goals and plans to accomplish them. The institute clearly
indicates that Intelligent Design will be their principal weapon and
Evolution their primary target in its onslaught against "materialism".
Yet Discovery has higher
aspirations than simply "debunking" Evolution and bringing
God back into the public schools.
Consider this excerpt from
Nina Shapiro's The
New Creationists:
(Note: When Nina mentions
Chapman, she is referring to Bruce Chapman, the co-founder of Discovery
Institute and a participant in the Reagan Regime that ushered in the
Neocon movement and the Second Gilded Age)
"Yet the Discovery Institute as an organization didn't get
involved in the issue in order to solve the mysteries of the universe.
Chapman is up front about having a social and political agenda. He sees
design intelligence as a way to combat the growing reliance on genetic
explanations for human behavior and what he sees as an undermining of
personal responsibility. As an example of this phenomenon, Chapman cites
the infamous "Twinkie defense" used by a murder defendant
claiming his sugar high made him do it.
Others associated with
the institute take a bigger leap of logic to argue that welfare, as
currently dispensed, is a misguided consequence of the Darwinian outlook.
"If you see human beings as nothing but matter and motion, than
all you do is treat them like mouths to feed," says Jay Richards,
program director for the institute's Center for Science and Culture.
"If they're more than that, you treat the whole person," he
argues, which would mean looking at such things as family structure
and the role of moral and religious values in their lives.
Do you really have to
attack a whole branch of science in order to counter liberal views on
welfare? The Discovery Institute folk think they do. "Unless you
get the science right," Chapman says, "it's very hard to contend
with the other arguments."
Ironically, Discovery is
not even welcome in its "home town" of Seattle.Consider Dan
Gonsiorowski's characterization on his Website, Seattlest:
"Something's gotta
be done. We can't throw them out. We're looking into it, but it appears
you can't excommunicate a think tank from the city. Our usual weapon
of choice, shame, won't work on the minds behind Intelligent Design
because you can't shame the shameless (see the State of the Union, see
also Fox News, see also the rest of the country, see also everyone but
Seattlest). Simply asking them to reconsider would be like trying to
reason with a monkey's eyeball. Marching around their compound with
big Darwin posters on sticks and shouting stuff would be cathartic,
but probably have little result other than getting them more air time
on Fox, again with the Fox banner "Seattle-based think tank."
Sometimes it's even "The Seattle-based think tank," like they're
the only ones thinking up in here. There are plenty of other Seattle
think tanks with more intelligent design in their little pinky ring
than the Discovery Institute has in its whole body. There's... Well,
there probably is. Maybe that's our solution. We need some other thinkers
to elevate the thinking. Tank up and start thinking, Seattle, for the
sake of our national image. Think so far outside the box that you wouldn't
even consider saying something as lame as "think outside the box"
and steer clear of any thinking that leads you to believe that there's
scientific evidence for Intelligent Design.
In 1998, members of a
Seattle nonprofit think tank drafted a secret five-year plan with an
ambitious goal: to "defeat scientific materialism" and "replace
materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature
and human beings are created by God."
For a glimpse into the "soul"
of the Discovery Institute, here is its Wedge Strategy:
http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.html
{As you peruse the Wedge,
bear in mind that the Center for Renewal of Science and Culture is a
part of the Discovery Institute, Intelligent Design truly is a theory
despite the fact that it is merely an assertion with no supporting evidence,
and that Discovery has no religious agenda whatsoever.}
NOTE FROM LENNY FLANK, author
of
Creation "Science" Debunked: The Wedge Document
is an internal memorandum from the Discovery Institute (the leading
proponent of Intelligent Designer "Theory") that was leaked
to the Internet in 1999. The Discovery Institute later admitted to its
authenticity. Since then, Discovery Institute hasn't talked very much
about the document, or the strategy it outlines. The reason is crushingly
obvious, since the Wedge Document makes it readily apparent that the
Discovery Institute is flat-out lying to us when it claims that its
Intelligent Designer campaign is concerned only with science and does
not have any religious aims, purpose or effect.
THE WEDGE STRATEGY
CENTER FOR THE RENEWAL OF
SCIENCE & CULTURE
INTRODUCTION
The proposition that human
beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles
on which Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected
in most, if not all, of the West's greatest achievements, including
representative democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress
in the arts and sciences.
Yet a little over a century
ago, this cardinal idea came under wholesale attack by intellectuals
drawing on the discoveries of modern science. Debunking the traditional
conceptions of both God and man, thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl
Marx, and Sigmund Freud portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual
beings, but as animals or machines who inhabited a universe ruled by
purely impersonal forces and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated
by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and environment. This
materialistic conception of reality eventually infected virtually every
area of our culture, from politics and economics to literature and art.
The cultural consequences
of this triumph of materialism were devastating. Materialists denied
the existence of objective moral standards, claiming that environment
dictates our behavior and beliefs. Such moral relativism was uncritically
adopted by much of the social sciences, and it still undergirds much
of modern economics, political science, psychology and sociology.
Materialists also undermined
personal responsibility by asserting that human thoughts and behaviors
are dictated by our biology and environment. The results can be seen
in modern approaches to criminal justice, product liability, and welfare.
In the materialist scheme of things, everyone is a victim and no one
can be held accountable for his or her actions.
Finally, materialism spawned
a virulent strain of utopianism. Thinking they could engineer the perfect
society through the application of scientific knowledge, materialist
reformers advocated coercive government programs that falsely promised
to create heaven on earth.
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. The Center awards fellowships for original research, holds
conferences, and briefs policymakers about the opportunities for life
after materialism.
The Center is directed by
Discovery Senior Fellow Dr. Stephen Meyer. An Associate Professor of
Philosophy at Whitworth College, Dr. Meyer holds a Ph.D. in the History
and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University. He formerly worked
as a geophysicist for the Atlantic Richfield Company.
THE WEDGE STRATEGY
Phase I.
Scientific Research, Writing & PublicityPhase
II.Publicity & Opinion-making
Phase III.Cultural Confrontation
& Renewal
THE WEDGE PROJECTS
Phase I. Scientific Research,
Writing & PublicationIndividual Research Fellowship ProgramPaleontology
Research program (Dr. Paul Chien et al.)Molecular Biology Research Program
(Dr. Douglas Axe et al.)
Phase II. Publicity &
Opinion-makingBook PublicityOpinion-Maker ConferencesApologetics SeminarsTeacher
Training ProgramOp-ed FellowPBS (or other TV) Co-productionPublicity
Materials / Publications
Phase III. Cultural Confrontation
& RenewalAcademic and Scientific Challenge ConferencesPotential
Legal Action for Teacher TrainingResearch Fellowship Program: shift
to social sciences and humanities
FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
SUMMARY
The social consequences of
materialism have been devastating. As symptoms, those consequences are
certainly worth treating. However, we are convinced that in order to
defeat materialism, we must cut it off at its source. That source is
scientific materialism. This is precisely our strategy. 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. The very beginning
of this strategy, the "thin edge of the wedge," was Phillip
]ohnson's critique of Darwinism begun in 1991 in Darwinism on Trial,
and continued in Reason in the Balance and Defeatng Darwinism by Opening
Minds. Michael Behe's highly successful Darwin's Black Box followed
Johnson's work. 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.
The Wedge strategy can be
divided into three distinct but interdependent phases, which are roughly
but not strictly chronological. We believe that, with adequate support,
we can accomplish many of the objectives of Phases I and II in the next
five years (1999-2003), and begin Phase III (See "Goals/ Five Year
Objectives/Activities").
Phase I: Research, Writing
and Publication
Phase II: Publicity and Opinion-making
Phase III: Cultural Confrontation
and Renewal
Phase I is the essential
component of everything that comes afterward. Without solid scholarship,
research and argument, the project would be just another attempt to
indoctrinate instead of persuade. A lesson we have learned from the
history of science is that it is unnecessary to outnumber the opposing
establishment. Scientific revolutions are usually staged by an initially
small and relatively young group of scientists who are not blinded by
the prevailing prejudices and who are able to do creative work at the
pressure points, that is, on those critical issues upon which whole
systems of thought hinge. So, in Phase I we are supporting vital witting
and research at the sites most likely to crack the materialist edifice.
Phase II. The primary purpose
of Phase II is to prepare the popular reception of our ideas. The best
and truest research can languish unread and unused unless it is properly
publicized. For this reason we seek to cultivate and convince influential
individuals in print and broadcast media, as well as think tank leaders,
scientists and academics, congressional staff, talk show hosts, college
and seminary presidents and faculty, future talent and potential academic
allies. Because of his long tenure in politics, journalism and public
policy, Discovery President Bruce Chapman brings to the project rare
knowledge and acquaintance of key op-ed writers, journalists, and political
leaders. This combination of scientific and scholarly expertise and
media and political connections makes the Wedge unique, and also prevents
it from being "merely academic." Other activities include
production of a PBS documentary on intelligent design and its implications,
and popular op-ed publishing. Alongside a focus on influential opinion-makers,
we also seek to build up a popular base of support among our natural
constituency, namely, Christians. We will do this primarily through
apologetics seminars. We intend these to encourage and equip believers
with new scientific evidence's that support the faith, as well as to
"popularize" our ideas in the broader culture.
Phase III. Once our research
and writing have had time to mature, and the public prepared for the
reception of design theory, we will move toward direct confrontation
with the advocates of materialist science through challenge conferences
in significant academic settings. We will also pursue possible legal
assistance in response to resistance to the integration of design theory
into public school science curricula. The attention, publicity, and
influence of design theory should draw scientific materialists into
open debate with design theorists, and we will be ready. With an added
emphasis to the social sciences and humanities, we will begin to address
the specific social consequences of materialism and the Darwinist theory
that supports it in the sciences.
GOALS
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.
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
1. A major public debate
between design theorists and Darwinists (by 2003)
2. Thirty published books
on design and its cultural implications (sex, gender issues, medicine,
law, and religion)
3. One hundred scientific,
academic and technical articles by our fellows
4. Significant coverage in
national media:
Cover story on major news
magazine such as Time or NewsweekPBS show such as Nova treating design
theory fairlyRegular press coverage on developments in design theoryFavorable
op-ed pieces and columns on the design movement by 3rd party media
5. 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 presuppositionsPositive
uptake in public opinion polls on issues such as sexuality, abortion
and belief in God
6. Ten states begin to rectify
ideological imbalance in their science curricula & include design
theory
7. Scientific achievements:
An active design movement
in Israel, the UK and other influential countries outside the US
Ten CRSC Fellows teaching
at major universities
Two universities where design
theory has become the dominant view
Design becomes a key concept
in the social sciences Legal reform movements base legislative proposals
on design theory
ACTVITIES
(1) Research Fellowship Program
(for writing and publishing)
(2) Front line research funding
at the "pressure points" (e.g., Daul Chien's Chengjiang Cambrian
Fossil Find in paleontology, and Doug Axe's research laboratory in molecular
biology)
(3) Teacher training
(4) Academic Conferences
(5) Opinion-maker Events
& Conferences
(6) Alliance-building, recruitment
of future scientists and leaders, and strategic partnerships with think
tanks, social advocacy groups, educational organizations and institutions,
churches, religious groups, foundations and media outlets
(7) Apologetics seminars
and public speaking
(8) Op-ed and popular writing
(9) Documentaries and other
media productions
(10) Academic debates
(11) Fund Raising and Development
(12) General Administrative
support
THE WEDGE STRATEGY PROGRESS
SUMMARY
Books
William Dembski and Paul
Nelson, two CRSC Fellows, will very soon have books published by major
secular university publishers, Cambridge University Press and The University
of Chicago Press, respectively. (One critiques Darwinian materialism;
the other offers a powerful alternative.)
Nelson's book, On Common
Descent, is the seventeenth book in the prestigious University of Chicago
"Evolutionary Monographs" series and the first to critique
neo-Darwinism. Dembski's book, The Design Inference, was back-ordered
in June, two months prior to its release date.
These books follow hard on
the heals of Michael Behe's Darwin's Black Box (The Free Press) which
is now in paperback after nine print runs in hard cover. So far it has
been translated into six foreign languages. The success of his book
has led to other secular publishers such as McGraw Hill requesting future
titles from us. This is a breakthrough.
InterVarsity will publish
our large anthology, Mere Creation (based upon the Mere Creation conference)
this fall, and Zondervan is publishing Maker of Heaven and Earth: Three
Views of the Creation-Evolution Controversy, edited by fellows John
Mark Reynolds and J.P. Moreland.
McGraw Hill solicited an
expedited proposal from Meyer, Dembski and Nelson on their book Uncommon
Descent. Finally, Discovery Fellow Ed Larson has won the Pulitzer Prize
for Summer for the Gods, his retelling of the Scopes Trial, and InterVarsity
has just published his co-authored attack on assisted suicide, A Different
Death.
Academic Articles
Our fellows recently have
been featured or published articles in major scientific and academic
journals in The Proceedings to the National Academy of Sciences, Nature,
The Scientist, The American Biology Teacher, Biochemical and Biophysical
Research Communications, Biochemistry, Philosophy and Biology, Faith
& Philosophy, American Philosophical Quarterly, Rhetoric & Public
Affairs, Analysis, Book & Culture, Ethics & Medicine, Zygon,
Perspectives on Science and the Christian Faith, Religious Studies,
Christian Scholars' Review, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, and
the Journal of Psychology and Theology. Many more such articles are
now in press or awaiting review at major secular journals as a result
of our first round of research fellowships. Our own journal, Origins
& Design, continues to feature scholarly contributions from CRSC
Fellows and other scientists.
Television and Radio Appearances
During 1997 our fellows appeared
on numerous radio programs (both Christian and secular) and five nationally
televised programs, Techno Politics, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Inside
the Law, Freedom Speaks, and Firing Line. The special edition of Techno
Politics that we produced with PBS in November elicited such an unprecedented
audience response that the producer Neil Freeman decided to air a second
episode from the "out takes." His enthusiasm for our intellectual
agenda helped stimulate a special edition of William F. Buckley's Firing
Line, featuring Phillip Johnson and two of our fellows, Michael Behe
and David Berlinski. At Ed Atsinger's invitation, Phil Johnson and Steve
Meyer addressed Salem Communications' Talk Show Host conference in Dallas
last November. As a result, Phil and Steve have been interviewed several
times on Salem talk shows across the country. For example, in July Steve
Meyer and Mike Behe were interviewed for two hours on the nationally
broadcast radio show Janet Parshall's America. Canadian Public Radio
(CBC) recently featured Steve Meyer on their Tapestry program. The episode,
"God & the Scientists," has aired all across Canada. And
in April, William Craig debated Oxford atheist Peter Atkins in Atlanta
before a large audience (moderated by William F. Buckley), which was
broadcast live via satellite link, local radio, and internet "webcast."
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
The Firing Line debate generated
positive press coverage for our movement in, of all places, The New
York Times, as well as a column by Bill Buckley. In addition, our fellows
have published recent articles & op-eds in both the secular and
Christian press, including, for example, The Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, The Washington Times, National Review, Commentary, Touchstone,
The Detroit News, The Boston Review, The Seattle Post-lntelligence,
Christianity Today, Cosmic Pursuits and World. An op-ed piece by Jonathan
Wells and Steve Meyer is awaiting publication in the Washington Post.
Their article criticizes the National Academy of Science book Teaching
about Evolution for its selective and ideological presentation of scientific
evidence. Similar articles are in the works.
Well-connected, well-funded,
and frighteningly determined to impose their beliefs on society as a
whole, it is little wonder that the Discovery Institute and Fundamentalist
Christians are proving to be a match made in their Christian God's heaven
as they wage their intellectual war against the "evils" of
"materialism".
Proponents of Intelligent
Design often charge those of us who support Evolution as being dogmatic.
Yet as a critical thinking person who is almost constantly seeking to
expand my knowledge base, I find myself consistently examining and shaping
my worldview and beliefs. I recognize that there are limitations to
the Theory of Evolution, and I see no problem with teaching our children
that Evolution is a theory rather than dogmatic fact. And if valid scientific
theories arise to rival Evolution, by all means, our children need to
learn them too.
However, I strenuously object
to intellectually dishonest groups of people employing Intelligent Design
as their Trojan Horse to put their God back into public schools.
Evolution is the "wedge".
Theocracy is the goal.
Freedom of conscience is
one of humanity's most precious liberties. Which is precisely why many
of the founders of the United States found themselves fleeing to the
"New World".
Is it such a surprise that
those of us opposing the agenda of the likes of Discovery "dogmatically"
assert for our freedoms to think critically and define our own spirituality?
Jason Miller is
a 39 year old sociopolitical essayist with a degree in liberal arts
and an extensive self-education (derived from an insatiable appetite
for reading). He is a member of Amnesty International and an avid supporter
of Oxfam International and Human Rights Watch. He welcomes responses
at [email protected]
or comments on his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.