A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism - Discovery Institute Usage

Discovery Institute Usage

By promoting a perception that evolution is the subject of wide controversy and debate within the scientific community, whereas in fact evolution is overwhelmingly supported by science, the list is used to lend support to other Discovery Institute campaigns promoting intelligent design, including "Teach the Controversy", "Critical Analysis of Evolution", "Free Speech on Evolution", and "Stand Up For Science". For example, in its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, the Institute claims that "evolution is a theory in crisis" and that many scientists criticize evolution and citing the list as evidence or a resource. The Discovery Institute also asserts that this information is being withheld from students in public high school science classes along with "alternatives" to evolution such as intelligent design. The Institute uses A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism as evidence to support its claim that evolution is disputed widely within the scientific community. In 2002 Stephen C. Meyer, the founder of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, presented the list as evidence to the Ohio Board of Education to promote Teach the Controversy. He citing it as demonstrating that there was a genuine controversy over Darwinian evolution. In the 2005 Kansas evolution hearings Meyer cited the list in support of his assertion that there was "significant scientific dissent from Darwinism" that students should be informed about.

The list was advertised in prominent periodicals such as The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard in October and November 2001, "to rebut bogus claims by Darwinists that no reputable scientists are skeptical of Darwinism" by "producing a list of 100 scientific dissenters." Its initial release was timed to coincide with the airing of the PBS Evolution television series at the end of 2001. The Discovery Institute also launched a tie-in website to promote the list.

The Discovery Institute has continued to collect signatures, reporting 300 in 2004, over 400 in 2005, over 600 in 2006 (from that year on the Discovery Institute began to include non-US scientists on the list), and over 700 in 2007. The Discovery Institute includes a description of the list in a response to one of its "Top Questions".

The Discovery Institute-related organization Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity manages "Physicians and Surgeons who Dissent from Darwinism", a similar list for medical professionals. The Discovery Institute compiled and distributed other similarly confusing and misleading lists of local scientists during controversies over evolution education in Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, and Texas.

In 2008 a Cybercast News Service article cited it in reference to a rebuttal issued by Rob Crowther, director of communications for the Discovery Institute, responding to a study which indicated that the majority of Americans support evolution, its role in science, and the importance of teaching evolution in schools. The Leader's Guide for the 2008 movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed includes the assertion that more than 700 scientists have signed the statement A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism on a page alleging that a largely atheistic scientific establishment was ignoring the facts about intelligent design.