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The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute (DI), a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. The CSC lobbies for the inclusion of creationism in the form of intelligent design (ID) in public school science curricula as an explanation for the origins of life and the universe while casting doubt on the theory of evolution. These positions have been rejected by the scientific community, which identifies intelligent design as pseudoscientific neo-creationism, whereas the theory of evolution is overwhelmingly accepted as a matter of scientific consensus. The Center for Science and Culture serves as the hub of the intelligent design movement. Nearly all of the luminaries of intelligent design are either CSC advisors, officers, or fellows. Stephen C. Meyer, a former vice president of the Discovery Institute and founder of the CSC, serves as a Senior Fellow, and Phillip E. Johnson is the Program Advisor. Johnson is commonly presented as the movement's "father" and architect of the Center's Wedge strategy and "Teach the Controversy" campaign, as well as the Santorum Amendment. == History == In 1987, the US Supreme Court ruled in ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' against ''creation science'' being taught in United States public school science classes. In reaction, the term ''intelligent design'' was coined as a substitute in drafts of the textbook ''Of Pandas and People'', which was published in 1989, beginning the campaigning of the intelligent design movement under the leadership of ''Pandas'' editor Charles Thaxton. The ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' ruling also inspired Phillip E. Johnson to begin anti-evolution campaigning. He met Stephen C. Meyer, and through him was introduced to others who were developing what became the Wedge strategy, including Michael Denton, Michael Behe and William A. Dembski, with Johnson becoming the de facto leader of the group. By 1995, Johnson was opposing the methodological naturalism of science in which "The Creator belongs to the realm of religion, not scientific investigation," and promoting "theistic realism" which "assumes that the universe and all its creatures were brought into existence for a purpose by God" and expects "this 'fact' of creation to have empirical, observable consequences." In December 1993, Bruce Chapman, president and founder of the Discovery Institute, noticed an essay in ''The Wall Street Journal'' by Meyer about a dispute when biology lecturer Dean H. Kenyon taught intelligent design creationism in introductory classes. Kenyon had co-authored ''Of Pandas and People'', and in 1993 Meyer had contributed to the teacher's notes for the second edition of ''Pandas''. Meyer was an old friend of Discovery Institute co-founder George Gilder, and over dinner about a year later they formed the idea of a think tank opposed to materialism. In the summer of 1995, Chapman and Meyer met a representative of Howard Ahmanson, Jr. Meyer, who had previously tutored Ahmanson's son in science, recalls being asked "What could you do if you had some financial backing?"〔 The Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture, as it was originally named, grew out of a conference called "The Death of Materialism and the Renewal of Culture" that the Discovery Institute organised in the summer of 1995. It was founded in 1996 by the Discovery Institute with funding provided by Fieldstead & Company, the Stewardship Foundation, Howard Ahmanson, Jr. and the Maclellan Foundation.〔〔 The evolution of the Center's name in 2002 reflects its attempt to present itself as less religiously motivated in the public's eye. The "renewal" in its name referred to its stated goal of "renewing" American culture by grounding society's major institutions, especially education, in religion as outlined in the Wedge Document. The CSC continues to state as a goal a redefinition of science, and the philosophy on which it is based, particularly the exclusion of what it calls the "unscientific principle of materialism," and in particular the acceptance of what it calls "the scientific theory of intelligent design." The position of the overwhelming majority of the scientific community is that the principle of naturalism allows falsifiability and that supernaturalism is unfalsifiable, meaning any suggested policies or curricula put forth by the Center that rest on supernatural suppositions would be by definition pseudoscience, not science. The Center maintains that the exclusion of supernatural explanations introduces a bias that is driven by materialism rather than being scientifically based. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Center for Science and Culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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