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Discovery Institute's “Wedge Document” How Darwinist Paranoia Fueled an Urban Legend
Evolution News ^ | 10/07/05 | Staff

Posted on 10/07/2005 7:48:04 PM PDT by Heartlander

Discovery Institute's “Wedge Document”: How Darwinist Paranoia Fueled an Urban Legend

In 1999 someone posted on the internet an early fundraising proposal for Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture. Dubbed the “Wedge Document,” this proposal soon took on a life of its own, popping up in all sorts of places and eventually spawning what can only be called a giant urban legend. Among true-believers on the Darwinist fringe the document came to be viewed as evidence for a secret conspiracy to fuse religion with science and impose a theocracy. These claims were so outlandish that for a long time we simply ignored them. But because some credulous Darwinists seem willing to believe almost anything, we decided we should set the record straight.

1. The Background

2. The Rise of an Urban Legend

3. What the Document Actually Says

Following are the document’s major points, which we still are happy to affirm:

  1. “The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization is 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.” As a historical matter, this statement happens to be true. The idea that humans are created in the image of God has had powerful positive cultural consequences. Only a member of a group with a name like the “New Orleans Secular Humanist Association” could find anything objectionable here. (By the way, isn’t it strange that a group supposedly promoting “theocracy” would praise “representative democracy” and “human rights”?)
  2. “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 throughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and environment.” This statement highlights one of the animating concerns of Discovery Institute as a public policy think tank. Leading nineteenth century intellectuals tried to hijack science to promote their own anti-religious agenda. This attempt to enlist science to support an anti-religious agenda continues to this day with Darwinists like Oxford’s Richard Dawkins, who boldly insists that Darwinism supports atheism. We continue to think that such claims are an abuse of genuine science, and that this abuse of real science has led to pernicious social consequences (such as the eugenics crusade pushed by Darwinist biologists early in the twentieth century).
  3. "Discovery Institute’s Center... seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies.” It wants to “reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions." We admit it: We want to end the abuse of science by Darwinists like Richard Dawkins and E.O. Wilson who try to use science to debunk religion, and we want to provide support for scientists and philosophers who think that real science is actually “consonant with… theistic convictions.” Please note, however: “Consonant with” means “in harmony with.” It does not mean “same as.” Recent developments in physics, cosmology, biochemistry, and related sciences may lead to a new harmony between science and religion. But that doesn’t mean we think religion and science are the same thing. We don’t.
  4. “Without solid scholarship, research and argument, the project would be just another attempt to indoctrinate instead of persuade.” It is precisely because we are interested in encouraging intellectual exploration that the “Wedge Document” identified the “essential” component of its program as the support of scholarly “research, writing and publication.” The document makes clear that the primary goal of Discovery Institute’s program in this area is to support scholars so they can engage in research and publication Scholarship comes first. Accordingly, by far the largest program in the Center’s budget has been the awarding of research fellowships to biologists, philosophers of science, and other scholars to engage in research and writing.
  5. “The best and truest research can languish unread and unused unless it is properly publicized.” It’s shocking but true—Discovery Institute actually promised to publicize the work of its scholars in the broader culture! What’s more, it wanted to engage Darwinists in academic debates at colleges and universities! We are happy to say that we still believe in vigorous and open discussion of our ideas, and we still do whatever we can to publicize the work of those we support. So much for the “secret” part of our supposed “conspiracy.”

A final thought: Don’t Darwinists have better ways to spend their time than inventing absurd conspiracy theories about their opponents? The longer Darwinists persist in spinning such urban legends, the more likely it is that fair-minded people will begin to question whether Darwinists know what they are talking about.

Read the Wedge document for yourself, along with a more detailed point by point response and clarification of falacious allegations.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: crevolist; discoveryinstitute; science; urbanlegend
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To: betty boop; Junior
Hi, BB! Thanks for the ping.

Junior, another thread to catalog.

41 posted on 10/08/2005 9:13:53 AM PDT by PatrickHenry ( I won't respond to a troll, crackpot, half-wit, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: PatrickHenry; Junior
Hello Patrick! You're welcome!

Hi Junior!

42 posted on 10/08/2005 9:24:21 AM PDT by betty boop (Nature loves to hide. -- Heraclitus)
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To: All
Here's an essay by an Islamic creationist, describing and praising the "Wedge Strategy." The author was one of the "experts" who testified for ID at the famous Kansas hearings.
Why Muslims Should Support Intelligent Design, By Mustafa Akyol.
43 posted on 10/08/2005 9:31:55 AM PDT by PatrickHenry ( I won't respond to a troll, crackpot, half-wit, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: betty boop
Just some thoughts? Jeepers, betty boop, what an understatement!

Your magnificient essay-post strikes right at the very heart of the deficiency in science these days, the reason so many are troubled and the objective of the Intelligent Design movement.

44 posted on 10/08/2005 9:55:53 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: PatrickHenry
The CrevoSci Archive
Just one of the many services of Darwin Central
"The Conspiracy that Cares"

CrevoSci threads for the past week:

  1. 2005-10-08 Famed author takes on Kansas: Rushdie bemoans role of religion in public life
  2. 2005-10-07 Descent of Man in Dover (Why acceptance of ID not inevitable.)
  3. 2005-10-07 Discovery Institute's “Wedge Document” How Darwinist Paranoia Fueled an Urban Legend
  4. 2005-10-07 Dover, PA Evolution Trial [daily thread for 07 Oct]
  5. 2005-10-07 Evolution and intelligent design Life is a cup of tea
  6. 2005-10-07 Let 'intelligent design' and science rumble
  7. 2005-10-07 The Las Cruces Fossil Human Footprints
  8. 2005-10-07 The Map that Changed the World [in 1815]
  9. 2005-10-07 University of Idaho Bans All Alternatives to Evolution
  10. 2005-10-07 Why Intelligent Design Is Going to Win
  11. 2005-10-06 Faith, Science and the Persecution of Richard Sternberg
  12. 2005-10-06 Scientist defends Big Bang and God
  13. 2005-10-06 Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon (quote below is the most significant item)
  14. 2005-10-06 The Mouth of the South Side (Carl Everett on Gays, Evolution, Bush and Kanye West)
  15. 2005-10-06 U of I president:teach only evolution in {University}science classes (Connection to PA court fight)
  16. 2005-10-06 Witness: 'Design' Replaced 'Creation'
  17. 2005-10-06 Witness: Movement's roots in creationism (Dover trial 10/6/05)
  18. 2005-10-05 Professor, teachers to testify in intelligent-design trial [Dover, PA, 05 Oct]
  19. 2005-10-05 Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
  20. 2005-10-05 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005 goes to Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock
  21. 2005-10-04 A space station view on giant lightning (May play role in global warming!)
  22. 2005-10-04 Ancient Peruvians Loved Their Spuds
  23. 2005-10-04 "Cardinal backs evolution and ""intelligent design"""
  24. 2005-10-04 Potatoes came from Peru, US study finds
  25. 2005-10-04 Space Scientists Seek Sprites, Elves and Jets
  26. 2005-10-04 Spider fooled into sex by drop-dead male
  27. 2005-10-04 The Bottom Line: Darwinism Promotes Social Disintegration
  28. 2005-10-04 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 is awarded to Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch
  29. 2005-10-03 How Long Did It Take to Deposit the Geologic Strata? (Hint: Maybe it wasn't millions of years)
  30. 2005-10-03 Live from Pennsylvania: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
  31. 2005-10-03 Returning to Dover [evolution trial in Dover, PA: week 2]
  32. 2005-10-03 Systemic determinants of gene evolution and function
  33. 2005-10-03 The timeless truth of creation

CrevoSci Warrior Freepdays for the month of October:
 

2003-10-09 antiRepublicrat
2004-10-10 Antonello
1998-10-18 AZLiberty
1999-10-14 blam
2000-10-19 cogitator
2001-10-21 Coyoteman
2004-10-26 curiosity
1998-10-29 Dataman
2000-10-29 dila813
2001-10-14 dread78645
1998-10-03 Elsie
1998-10-17 f.Christian
2002-10-08 FairOpinion
2001-10-26 Genesis defender
2000-10-09 Gil4
2000-10-08 guitarist
2004-10-10 joeclarke
1998-10-03 js1138
2001-10-24 k2blader
2000-10-08 LibWhacker
2002-10-25 m1-lightning
2001-10-10 Michael_Michaelangelo
2001-10-09 Mother Abigail
2004-10-25 MRMEAN
2004-10-03 Nicholas Conradin
1999-10-28 PatrickHenry
1998-10-01 Physicist
1998-10-25 plain talk
1998-10-12 Restorer
2005-10-04 ret_medic
2001-10-23 RightWingNilla
2004-10-09 snarks_when_bored
2002-10-22 sumocide
2004-10-21 WildHorseCrash
2001-10-23 yankeedame
2002-10-20 Z in Oregon

In Memoriam
Fallen CrevoSci Warriors:


ALS
Area Freeper
Aric2000
Askel5
bluepistolero
churchillbuff
ConservababeJen
DittoJed2
dob
Ed Current
f.Christian
followerofchrist
general_re
goodseedhomeschool
gopwinsin04
gore3000
Jedigirl
JesseShurun
kharaku
Le-Roy
Marathon
medved
metacognative
Modernman
NoKinToMonkeys
Ogmios
peg the prophet
Phaedrus
Phoroneus
pickemuphere
ret_medic
RickyJ
SeaLion
Selkie
Shubi
Tomax
tpaine
WaveThatFlag
xm177e2


Bring back Modernman and SeaLion!

45 posted on 10/08/2005 12:08:23 PM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: Junior
Thanks for plugging The List-O-Links, but notice that it's hyphenated, not written like an Irish name.
46 posted on 10/08/2005 12:23:10 PM PDT by PatrickHenry ( I won't respond to a troll, crackpot, half-wit, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: Ichneumon
Wow -- thanks for demonstrating that creationists/IDers are just as dishonest and irrational in their "spin" as they are in their attempts to critique science.

Let's see how they spin THIS:

"Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory," William Dembski, one of the movement's chief proponents, said in a 1999 interview in Touchstone, a Christian magazine that Forrest cited in her testimony.
[emphasis added]
source: http://ydr.com/story/doverbiology/88606/

IDers; hoist on the petard of Dembski's own words....

47 posted on 10/08/2005 12:34:41 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: PatrickHenry
...like an Irish name.

List O'Links
Paddy O'Furniture
Mark O'Polo

48 posted on 10/08/2005 12:40:01 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: RightWingAtheist

The Thomas More lawyers seem to be representing their clients rather well. They do not seem to present their client's cases well.


49 posted on 10/08/2005 12:42:38 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic; Junior
Four o'clock
Theory o'Evolution. But ...
The List-O-Links.

It's all about the O'

50 posted on 10/08/2005 12:56:40 PM PDT by PatrickHenry ( I won't respond to a troll, crackpot, half-wit, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

I do believe there will be an appeal based on incompetent counsel.


51 posted on 10/08/2005 12:57:52 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: dr_lew

Actually the unitarianism thing probably isn't correct. I looked it up after I posted and the source had changed its info. I've noticed people who wish to portray our nation as originally irreligious use a lot of BS info, like portraying George Washington as a deist. Deists don't get baptized : ) I even wonder about the purposes of the Jefferson Bible. Jefferson appears to have been a Godly man. But about Newton, he said "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily." A unitarian wouldn't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God; they deny too much of it.


52 posted on 10/08/2005 1:20:43 PM PDT by Tim Long (Gingrich Brownback '08)
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To: Tim Long

Isaac Newton attempted to secretly publish essays attacking the concept of the Trinity. He was afraid to publish them in england. (I wonder why.)


53 posted on 10/08/2005 1:48:36 PM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: Tim Long
A unitarian wouldn't believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God; they deny too much of it.

That's the Unitarians. Newton's beliefs were personal and were unitarian in nature. That is, he firmly rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, based on his historical study of the Arian heresy.

Cf. Westfall, The Life of Isaac Newton, under Arianism in the index. "The mere thought of trinitarianism, the 'fals infernal religion,' was enough to fan Newton into a rage." And Newton blamed it for what he saw as the degraded practice of Christianity, represented chiefly by Roman Catholicism, but not excepting Anglicanism.

Newton came near to sacrificing his academic career for his beliefs, as he was prepared to refuse ordination into the Anglican Church, which had been a requirement for his position at Cambridge, and would have involved swearing to beliefs abhorrent to him. Fortunately, we may say, some adroit politicing voided this requirement in the nick of time.

54 posted on 10/08/2005 2:04:34 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew

The Unitarians (as opposed as to unitarians) seem to have three beliefs, The Fatherhood Of God, The Brotherhood Of Man, and The Neighborhood Of Boston.


55 posted on 10/08/2005 2:13:36 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: PatrickHenry

Sorry. I fixed it for the next posting.


56 posted on 10/08/2005 3:54:55 PM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: Heartlander
Thanks for posting Heartlander.

I had no doubt that the "wedgie boogieman" was the result of the excitable scientific materialists.

57 posted on 10/08/2005 4:10:52 PM PDT by KMJames
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To: KMJames
correction:...the creation of the excitable scientific materialists.
58 posted on 10/08/2005 4:20:35 PM PDT by KMJames
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To: Junior

Another of the "fallen" -- Kevin Curry.


59 posted on 10/08/2005 5:00:22 PM PDT by PatrickHenry ( I won't respond to a troll, crackpot, half-wit, or incurable ignoramus.)
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To: PatrickHenry

Thanks. I'm beginning to feel like a graves registrar. Too many fallen over the years...


60 posted on 10/08/2005 6:45:30 PM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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