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The Discovery Institute: harming us with pseudoscience
By:
Posted: 4/13/07
This weekend Dedman Law School's Christian Legal Society will be
hosting a controversial and well-known institute that preaches a
religious message masked in a capsule of pseudoscience.
The Discovery Institute is one of the nation's leading political action
groups. It fights to create a theistic world view that corrupts science
to fit the doctrines of evangelical and literal Christians who are
unable to reconcile their religious beliefs with the material world.
A controversial document (reported as the Wedge Document, a 1998
internal memo) stated the Institute's goal was to "drive a wedge" into
"scientific materialism" in order to divorce it from its purely
observational and naturalistic methodology and stop the deleterious
effects of evolution on Western culture.
As you can see, this Institute, which is on our campus, this weekend
does not seek to debate ideas in an academic, scientific or even
rational setting. Perhaps more egregious is the fact that the Discovery
Institute does not practice science, namely the scientific method.
Science is driven by constant self-critique, analysis and
experimentation. The scientific method is the cornerstone to this
practice and is a tool that has not only progressed humanity into an
age of technological, medical and societal marvel, but has helped to
correct the flaws and pitfalls within science as well. The thing about
the scientific method is that it relies on observable and recordable
phenomena in the material world. Keep in mind the phrase "material
world." This is key.
If that observable data does not match up with the hypothesis of the
scientist then the hypothesis must be changed. This is an error
correcting mechanism by the mere fact that if new data or new
discoveries are made they can be tested against an accepted hypothesis.
If the hypothesis does not stand it is made defunct and the scientific
method starts over again to find a new hypothesis or explanation.
This is where the Discovery Institute fails. The claims they make,
claims based purely on religious or supernatural grounds, can NOT be
tested in the material world. I can neither prove nor disprove the
existence of a god or gods via observable phenomena in the material
world - and neither can the Discovery Institute no matter what they may
tell you. If they do tell you this it is because they are saying it
based on a spiritual and supernatural belief masked in scientific
language - not in scientific language itself.
There is nothing wrong with holding religious beliefs and believing in
science - I know many Christians that do so and have stronger faith for
it. You can not bring your religious beliefs into science, however,
because as soon as you do you have corrupted the scientific method and
are no longer talking about rationality and logic - you are talking
about faith and emotion.
Carl Sagan once said that science is like a candle in the dark. It
helps us to illuminate our world with the advances and progress it
brings. He also warned that science could be used for ill when it is in
the wrong hands - mainly by people who hold narrow-minded and
pseudoscientific world views. With the amount of turmoil in our world
today, it shocks me that people could still be fighting an institution
(science) that has progressed humanity further than any economic,
political or religious system ever has.
Unlike any other force in our world, science has the power to save or
destroy humanity. The Discovery Institute is an institution that fights
and corrupts this power by confusing the scientific process and
preaches pseudoscience to a generally unaware audience.
For those that fear science and see it as a negative influence in
society (i.e. the Discovery Institute) I have just one more comment to
make. Carl Sagan once marveled at the furthest photo of Earth ever
taken by Voyager I on Feb. 14, 1990 making a very poignant
philosophical statement.
"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In
our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help
will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a
character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better
demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of
our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more
kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish
that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." This is what
science if used properly can bring, hope to humanity.
The Discovery Institute can believe in a deity - it is their right. The
Discovery Institute can not pass off that belief as science. When they
try to they only show their own inability to come to terms with our
existence on this little pale blue dot. Believe in God, believe in
humanity, believe what you will, but please realize that well practiced
science is the best thing we as a species have to fight tyranny,
environmental degradation, illness and suffering.
About the writer:
Ben Wells is a junior anthropology major. He can be reached a bwells@smu.edu.
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