everal noted creationists -- advocates of "intelligent design," or ID -- held a briefing on May 10 for members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, under the aegis of the Discovery Institute. The three-hour meeting took place in a House Judiciary Committee hearing room in the Rayburn Office Building, provided by Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL), chairman of the Constitution subcommittee, and was titled "Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design and its Implications for Public Policy and Education."

   Word of the confab was released earlier this week by the American Geological Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based professional federation of 35 geoscientific and related groups representing over 100,000 geologists, geophysicists, educators and others in the field of geosciences. According to a report from the AGI's Governmental Affairs unit, the capitol gathering was organized by the Discovery Institute, and included presentations challenging Darwinian evolution and a discussion of its alleged impact on social, moral and political issues.

   The briefing came as Congress is embroiled in a debate over funding for a wide range of educational programs. In the Senate, elected officials are struggling with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act refunding, which could end up funneling millions of dollars to religious schools under the guise of vouchers and "school choice."

   According to the AGI update, the briefing involved "a number of leading lights in the ID movement" including biology professor Michael Behe (author of "Darwin's Black Box"); Whitworth College philosophy professor Stephen Meyer; Nancy Pearcey (co-author with Watergate crook-turned-evangelist Chuck Colson of "How Shall We Live?); Dr. William Dembski, Director of the Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University; and Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson ("Darwin on Trial").

   Pearcey and Behe are Fellows at the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), and Johnson is listed as a member of the Advisory Board.

   The Center was created by the Discovery Institute in 1996 to be a major force in promoting so-called "Intelligent Design," a variant of creationism. Creationists all argue that life and the universe arose as the product of Divine will -- literally, an act of God -- but they disagree on the details of that scenario.

   Many creationists are clustered around groups like the Institute for Creation Research founded by Henry Morris. In 1961, he and John Whitcomb published "The Genesis Flood," and argued that contrary to evolution, the scientific record supported claims found in the Book of Genesis regarding everything from the Noachian flood to separate "creations" of human and animal life. This led to the founding of the ICR, which has been instrumental in organizing fundamentalist Christians to pressure school board into providing "equal time" for creationist accounts.

   Morris and the Institute represent a wing of the creationist movement which embraces a "young-earth" timeline concerning the origin of life and the universe. Some argue that the world is about 6,000 years old, and that the slow, gradual uniformitarian standards used by physical scientists -- and the "deep time" of astronomers and geologists -- are false. Other creationists (although they seem to be a minority in the movement) suggest that an older earth scenario is called for, or that there was a temporal "gap" between the pre-Adamic events in Genesis and the subsequent recreation. Divine agency, though, is considered responsible for the earth.

   Still others may stretch the timeline back even farther, blending much of the rhetoric and findings of science into a "Progressive" form of creationism that still has a God playing a key role in the fabrication of the universe and human beings.

   Intelligence Design (ID) is considered the intellectual offspring of William Paley (1743-1805), an English theologian, moral philosopher and Deacon. Paley defended the veracity of the New Testament in his 1790 two volume work, "Horae Paulinae," and he argued with deists in his 1794 opus, "View of the Evidence of Christianity." In 1802, he published what has become one of his more influential treatises, "Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity." Here Paley argued from analogy for the existence of a God, suggesting that if one happened to find a watch (as opposed to, say, a stone), it was obvious that there must somewhere be a watch maker. From this, he went on to claim that the order and design of the natural world necessarily presupposed a grand design and thus a designer. While deists of the time may have agreed with the notion of designer -- the Masonic "Great Architect of the Universe" for instance -- Paley linked this designer to the Biblical, Judeo-Christian deity.

   Paley mustered a considerable collection of rhetorical evidence for his design theory, and he was particularly interested in the mechanics of the human body; he ransacked "Kiell's Anatomy" for a lengthy discussion of how bones, joints and muscles all seemed to suggest a "purpose" or plan. He argued that the existence of the eye should convince any skeptic that there was indeed a designer at work in fashioning life. From this, Paley concluded that the Designer had all of the other characteristics which he had argued for in previous works, including benevolence.

   According to a summary of creationist beliefs from the National Center for Science Education, most advocates of Intelligent Design allow for micro-evolution, but argue that the larger process of mutation and natural selection is really the work of an intelligent and intervening deity. "Most IDC (Intelligent Design Creationism) activists are not scientists, but philosophers or historians." Behe is an exception, and despite his background as a biologist he claims that some biological phenomena cannot be adequately explained by natural evolutionary processes.

   In 1999, it was learned that CRSC had commissioned an internal document known as "The Wedge Project," which outlined a campaign to promulgate Intelligent Design. The document circulated on line, and at least one version referred to "The Wedge Strategy." There have been some questions about the authenticity of the statement, although officials with CRSC have reportedly admitted that the document is based in part on Phillip Johnson's work, "Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds."

   Indeed, the parallels between "The Wedge" document and Johnson's call for a confrontational attack on Darwinism are easy to spot.

   The CRSC strategy plan asserts that leading figures, from Darwin and Marx to Sigmund Freud, "portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as animals or machines who inhabit a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and environment." It adds, "This materialist conception of reality eventually infected virtually every area of our culture, from politics and economics to literature and art."

   Describing the consequences of this process as "devastating," and even blaming evolutionary teachings for utopianism and totalitarian social experiments, the "Project" calls for a slew of tactical initiatives -- everything from book publicity to seminars in Apologetics, publication of ID materials, and "Cultural Confrontation" through "Academic and Scientific Challenge Conferences," "Potential Legal Action for Teacher Training," and a fellowship program.

   "We are convinced that in order to defeat materialism, we must cut it off at its source. That source is scientific materialism ... If we view the predominant materialistic science as a giant tree, our strategy is intended to function as a 'wedge' that, while relatively small, can split the trunk when applied at its weakest point..."

   Under a section described as a "Five Year Strategic Plan," the unidentified author or authors urge relatively tame actions common to any social cause groups. This includes networking with media, scheduling appearances on talk shows, enlisting the support of academic allies, and even having PBS produce a "documentary on intelligent design and its implications." Among other targets of the "Plan" are liaison with congressional staff, think tank leaders, and other "influential individuals."

   A more lofty and ambitious set of "Twenty Year Goals" is elucidated. The Center hopes "To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science," and elevate ID applications "in specific fields including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities." There is also the general goal of having ID "permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life."

   The May 10 capitol hill "briefing" drew about fifty visitors, including a small contingent of congressional staffers and, according to AGI, several Members of Congress. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback introduced some CRSC speakers, and remarked on the controversy in his home state of Kansas over evolution -- members of a state committee want to insert creationist disclaimers in science texts -- and even compared this to the rebellion of antislavery activist John Brown. One hears this sort of martial rhetoric increasingly, especially in regard to culture war issues like creationism, school prayer, or display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

   "More significant was the appearance of Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI), who warmly introduced several of the speakers." Petri is slated to become the next Chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee next year. Others listed in the press release for the Discovery Institute/CRSC "briefing" as "co-hosts" included House Science Committee members Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-TX) and Education Committee member Mark Souder (R-IN). Souder, a strong supporter of the religious right agenda inside the beltway, was instrumental last year in introducing legislation (H.AMDT. 201) which would "allow governmental entities that make grants to nongovernmental entities to also make grants or enter into contracts with religious organizations." Rep. Pitts is a member of Tom DeLay's "Values Action Team" (VAT), charged with carrying out the social agenda of religious right groups like James Dobson's Focus on the Family. VAT members have ushered a number of proposals through the congressional legislative process, including bills calling for school prayer, display of the Ten Commandments, and public funding for faith-based social outreaches.

   Rep. Canady, Constitution Subcommittee Chairman, reportedly attended the second half of the briefing.

   After the "briefing," a special private luncheon was held in the Capitol Building, Room HC7.

   According to the AGI report transcript:

   "Despite the presence of congressional heavy hitters, Johnson disavowed any intention of playing the Washington power game (something he accused scientists of doing) and emphasized that he and his colleagues were there only to open minds which had been kept closed by an elite scientific priesthood. All of the speakers emphasized that this was a debate among scientists, not between science and religion. They stressed that the idea of design is entirely empirical, that we recognize it all the time in everyday life and can make the conclusion of design based wholly on the physical evidence...

   "The speakers portrayed ID theory as the logical outcome of the advancement of science. Both Behe and Meyer repeatedly noted that scientists have been enormously surprised by the complexity they find in nature -- whereas Darwinism may have worked within the limited scope of the 19th-century scientific understanding, it cannot handle the much greater complexity that scientists now recognize..."

   Other statements from the AGI report:

   ¶    "The key battleground is in education, which in the hands of Darwinists is no longer a search for truth. Instead, ideas are now merely problem-solving tools..."

   ¶    "Pearcey asked what this means for religion, answered that for the Darwinists, God becomes merely an idea that appears in the human mind ... Pearcey went on to explain that the US legal system is based on moral principles and that the only way to have ultimate moral grounding for law is to have an unjudged judge, an uncreated creator. Nothing else can take his place..."

   ¶    "Johnson argued that the scientific priesthood has banished God from allowable discussion, leaving Darwinism as the only game in town..."

   ¶    "All four speakers were exceedingly cautious in responding to questions about how ID theory relates to religion. Meyer emphasized that the issue is about two different scientific theories with large implications for theistic and naturalistic worldviews. When asked if he was being too tentative about ID theory not being a proof of God, Meyer replied that using the principle of uniformitarianism -- that the present is the key to the past -- naturalism is insufficient, and a designer is thus needed..."

   ¶    "Asked if there was a critical mass yet of ID supporters among scientists at universities, Johnson stated that you do not convince the priesthood but generationally replace them. He argued that demographics on ID's side -- polls show skepticism about Darwinism so the public at large is sympathetic but has been disabled by the stereotypes and mind games of the scientific elite..."

   Earlier this evening, AANEWS spoke with David Applegate of the American Geophysical Institute's Government Affairs office.

   "As far as I know, this is the first time any sort of 'briefing' on the subject of creationism and evolution has been held on capitol hill," Applegate said. "We're not sure yet if this was just an isolated, one-time event, or something else."

   Applegate noted that the May 10 meeting "included people who were different from the Bible-thumping flat earthers or other creationist types ... this is definitely a different kettle of fish."

   As far as we know, mainstream and capitol hill specialty media have not covered or remarked on the May 10 creationist briefing.

[text only]