The Wedge Strategy: Ulterior Motives to Pseudoscience

One of the most disturbing trends (to my view) in the current administration is its endorsement of 'Intelligent Design' theory. The idea itself, as with the philosophy behind it, seem rather innocuous: that life is too complex to have been created by a mere act of chance, and that there must have been some intelligent power behind life's genesis (in other words, God). It's a view I would accept and, as a theistic evolutionist, applaud. But it is not science, and does not belong to the field of scientific inquiry. Science makes hypotheses about the natural world that a.) are observable, b.) are quantifiable and c.) can be falsified. And there is no real way to observe or quantify such a power or prove that such a power doesn't exist.

It's bad enough that conservative politicians, lobbyists and pop pseudoscientists are trying to establish ID as a legitimate field of scientific study both in public schooling and in research circles when it isn't legitimate scientific study period. But there is an ulterior motive to creating this establishment.

The euphemistically-named Centre for the Renewal of Science and Culture, a lobbying organisation dedicated to discrediting standard evolutionary theory affiliated with the Discovery Institute, issued in 1998 a document outlining the 'Wedge Strategy', outlining the five- and twenty-year goals of the Intelligent Design movement. These are its self-describing governing goals, as put forth in the Wedge Document:


To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.
To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and hurnan beings are created by God.

Five Year Goals:
To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific research being done from the perspective of design theory.
To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science.
To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda.

Twenty Year Goals:
To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its innuence in the fine arts.
To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.


As seen here, design 'theorists' are not interested in an objective and honest line of scientific inquiry. They're not even interested in working to convince the scientific community. They have a clear ulterior and unscientific agenda to muddy the waters of scientific inquiry in both secondary schools and the wider community and ultimately, to see their weltanschauung dominate the discussion not only of life's origins, but also of morality, culture and public policy, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.

This is scary stuff. It's an affront to the scientific method, which takes nothing for granted, and it's an affront to the open and democratic spirit of the scientific community. Its broader goals are an affront to the principles of our society. Though Discovery Institute pundits have since disavowed the Wedge Strategy, it still remains a black mark on their movement's record. It is imperative, now more than ever since an avowedly friendly administration holds the reins of power, to subject the Intelligent Design movement to increased scrutiny and to ensure that it isn't still trying to wedge its way in where it doesn't belong.