Criticism
Every leading scientific professional organization has through position statements unequivocally endorsed evolution as a widely accepted and well-proven theory. McGill University Professor of Education Brian Alters states in an article published by the NIH that "99.9 percent of scientists accept evolution".
Critics say that the Institute is conducting a deliberate disinformation campaign. One common criticism is that the rhetoric employed by the Institute in its campaigns is intentionally vague and misleading and that the campaigns mask a near total absence of scientific support and productive research programs. The Templeton Foundation, who once provided grants for conferences and courses to debate intelligent design has since rejected the Discovery Institute's entreaties for more funding, Foundation senior vice president Charles L. Harper Jr. said "They're political - that for us is problematic," and that while Discovery has "always claimed to be focused on the science," "what I see is much more focused on public policy, on public persuasion, on educational advocacy and so forth."
In one of a series of articles in Skeptic on the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, ID critic Ed Brayton noted:
| “ | The intelligent design (ID) movement has long labored to inculcate two mutually exclusive falsehoods in the minds of the public: A) that ID is a purely scientific theory that has nothing to do with religion; and B) that any objection to ID is evidence of bias and discrimination against religion. | ” |
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—Ed Brayton, The Richard Sternberg Affair |
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Read more about this topic: Discovery Institute Campaigns