A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism

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In 2001 the "100 Scientists" advert was taken out by the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture. It has since garnered more signatures.

A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism is a list produced by the Discovery Institute to support its claims of scientific validity for intelligent design with signatories to the statement that:

We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.

1 Overview
2 Counter-petitions
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The list was advertised in periodicals (The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard and perhaps others) in October and November 2001, "to rebut bogus claims by Darwinists that no reputable scientists are skeptical of Darwinism" with particular reference to 2001 PBS: Evolution documentaries by "producing a list of 100 scientific dissenters"^[1]^[2].

On November 29, 2001, the National Center for Science Education produced a critique, describing the wording of the statement and of the advertisement as misleading, and noting that of the 105 "scientists" listed, 41 were biologists, with the remainder including engineers, mathematicians and philosophers, and that none of those listed was recognizable as a prominent contributor to the scientific literature debating the role of natural selection in evolution. From interviewing a sample of the signatories they found that some were less critical of "Darwinism" than the advertisement claimed.^[3]

The DI has continued to collect signatures reporting 300 in 2004^[4] and over 400 in 2005^[5], over 600 in 2006^[6]. The DI lists it as top Questions^[7].

A February 2006 New York Times article criticized A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, pointing out that only 25% of the signatories were biologists and a sampling of those signing "suggest(s) that many are evangelical Christians, whose doubts about evolution grew out of their religious beliefs."^[8] The Discovery Institute response claimed that the article had missed the point, and that "engineers and other scientists have realized that the primary problems facing modern evolutionary theory are engineering problems"^[9].

Another criticism was that though such statements as A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism commonly note the institutional affiliations of signatories for purposes of identification, the Discovery Institute's statement strategically listed either the institution that granted a signatory's PhD or the institutions with which the individual is presently affiliated. Thus the institutions listed for Raymond G. Bohlin, Fazale Rana, and Jonathan Wells, for example, were the University of Texas, Ohio University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where they earned their degrees, rather than their current affiliations: Probe Ministries for Bohlin, the Reasons to Believe ministry for Rana, and the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture for Wells. During controversies over evolution education in Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, and Texas, similarly confusing lists of local scientists were circulated.

Critics also say the Discovery Institute inflates the academic credentials and affiliations of signatories, and in particular, Henry F. Schaefer's. The institute prominently and frequently asserts that Schaefer has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.^[2] ^[10] Barbara Forrest and others allege that the Discovery Institute is inflating his reputation by constantly referring to him as a "five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize" despite that Nobel Prize nominations remain confidential for fifty years^[11] and there being about 250-300 nominations per prize per year^[12]

At least one signatory of A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism has abandoned the list, saying he felt mislead. Robert C. Davidson, a Christian, scientist, doctor, and retired nephrology professor at the University of Washington medical school said after having signed he was shocked when he saw the Discovery Institute was calling evolution a "theory in crisis." "It's laughable: There have been millions of experiments over more than a century that support evolution," said Davidson. "There's always questions being asked about parts of the theory, as there are with any theory, but there's no real scientific controversy about it." "When I joined I didn't think they were about bashing evolution. It's pseudo-science, at best ... What they're doing is instigating a conflict between science and religion."^[13]

[edit] Counter-petitions

As a humorous response parodying such listing of supposed supporters, the National Center for Science Education produced Project Steve listing scientists with doctorates who had signed a pro-evolution statement, the catch being that all had to have names with variations on "Steve" as does only about 1% of the U.S. population. The list as announced on February 16, 2003, had 220 Steves and has continued to grow^[14]. The DI's list meanwhile has 5 Steves. The DI's William Dembski has responded that "if Project Steve was meant to show that a considerable majority of the scientific community accepts a naturalistic conception of evolution, then the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) could have saved its energies -- that fact was never in question. The more interesting question was whether any serious scientists reject a naturalistic conception of evolution"^[15].

After the Discovery Institute presented the petition as an amicus curia in the Kitzmiller v. Dover intelligent design court case in October 2005, a counter petition, A Scientific Support For Darwinism, was organised and gathered 7733 signatories from scientists in four days.

The Clergy Letter Project has collected signatures of clergy who "believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist"^[16]