One can tell when a group or organization has an agenda by observing the lengths to which they will go to defend their cause. Some will go to noble and respectable lengths of persistence and dedication, while others will resort to smear campaigns, censorship, distortion of the facts, and many additional underhanded techniques. Out of desperation or blind conviction, a group can abandon all honorable principles and reveal its true intentions. When the message is more important than the mode of its transmission, any and all costs - no matter how deplorable - may be considered worthwhile to deliver it.

Religion has always had an interesting relationship with science. In the days of Copernicus and Galileo, the church sought to suppress findings that challenged their preferred dogmas. Once the scientific revolution came about, the church then tried to save face and find its own heroes in men like Newton, Kepler, and Pascal. In the late 1700s, William Paley introduced the argument from design with his famous watchmaker analogy. Religion went from punishing and concealing science to offering its own pseudo-scientific ideas, but then when Darwin proposed his theory of evolution by Natural Selection, the religious world turned on its head again.

There is still today a devout body of believers who oppose evolution and attempt to label theology as science. Amusingly though, more and more of these individuals and organizations are being exposed, not just as abusers and accusers of real science, but as frauds and charlatans guilty of immoral and even illegal means of furthering their message.

The Discovery Institute is a religious conservative organization that has rallied against evolution in several court cases, pushes for creationism in public school science classrooms, and has led an aggressive campaign through hundreds of websites, books, articles, and YouTube videos. The group has continuously misrepresented its own agenda as a secular one and tries to cover up its initial Wedge strategy, which included a goal to "replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God" [1]. The Discovery Institute has filed copyright complaints against videos on YouTube that they do not own the copyright for [2], and have also crusaded on aggressive smear campaigns towards anyone offering dissent to their organization [3].

Creation Science Evangelism is a ministry run by pastor Kent Hovind, who is currently serving a ten year prison sentence for tax evasion [4]. Although he claims to have a Ph.D., lists himself as "Dr. Hovind" in phonebooks, and says he taught high school Biology for 15 years, Mr. Hovind admits to receiving a 'Christian education' degree from Patriot Bible University, a school that charges on a monthly basis, offers no public education programs, and requires extremely little to graduate [5]. Like the Discovery Institute, Creation Science Evangelism has also filed false copyright claims against YouTube videos, although Hovind has openly stated on his website and in many videos that none of his material is copyrighted [6]. Lately his son Eric Hovind has taken over CSE.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 documentary produced by Ben Stein and Premise Media, which argues that the scientific community unfairly suppresses the intelligent design movement. Before the film was even released, controversies arose over copyright issues involving animations used in the movie [7], pre-screenings that banned renowned evolutionary scientists from attending [8], and emails that informed other scientific personnel of fake cancelations and rescheduled showings [9]. Additionally, the circumstances surrounding the firings of people who the film alleged were 'expelled' for advocating creationism have been proven to be unrelated to religious ideology or support of intelligent design [10].

Answers in Genesis is a Christian apologetics organization led by Ken Ham, with a purpose of defending creationism and endorsing a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. In 1998, the ministry fooled the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins into granting them an interview, neglecting to inform him of their creationist beliefs. During the interview, Dawkins became aware that he was speaking with a creation science group and paused while considering to throw them out or allow things to continue, as they protested that they had come all the way from Australia. Professor Dawkins nicely decided to let it continue, but found that a year later the interview had been edited and released on a creationist videotape, making it seem that he paused for thought over a scientific question that had stumped him [11]. This deceitfully edited piece of propaganda has since spread throughout YouTube like wildfire.

What are these groups so afraid of, and what are they trying to hide that makes them resort to such dubious tactics? Is their so-called truth so unapparent and weak that it can't stand without the aid of extremely questionable persons and methods? For all the accusations of hoax that are thrown at the scientific community regarding evolution, it often seems that the proponents of creationism are the ones who truly have fraud on their side. Evolution deniers have been repeatedly challenged to introduce peer-reviewed scientific papers, research, and discoveries to validate their claims, and still not a shred of evidence has been provided thus far. Could it be that they are even aware of how flimsy their arguments are, and they attempt to compensate in courtrooms, censorship and copyright battles, and massive mudslinging competitions?

The abusers of science claim that scientific study supports their religious doctrines, when in actuality it does not. The accusers of science say that modern science is materialistic or atheistic and should therefore be discarded in favor of faith, or be recognized as simply another brand of belief. Interestingly, a common theme among both groups is that few members of either one will have any education or credentials in any scientific field, yet they feel themselves knowledgeable enough to speak as an authority. Real science is agnostic on the issue of God though. It can make no more declarations on the nature of reality than the facts will allow, and the facts do not currently point to the existence of a god OR exclude such a possibility.

However, this certainly doesn't mean that creationism or intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution in science classes. Anything and everything that has been accepted as legitimate science has gone through the scientific method. The method calls for us to observe, form a hypothesis, make predictions, experiment, and finally publish a theory in peer-reviewed literature, where it will be subjected to scrutiny and further experimentation by many other scientists in the field. Until a better theory is introduced which explains more than the previous one, or until flaws are demonstrated in the theory, using the same scientific method, it will stand and remain as the best current explanation. Creationism is stuck at step two because it has not made any predictions that have been verified, and it is doubtful that it even qualifies as a hypothesis, since such an explanation of our origins does not appear to be falsifiable.

On the other hand, evolution has passed the test of the scientific method, and no anti-evolutionist has provided anything to call it into question as the best current explanation of our origins. In the centuries since Darwin, we have only added more and more support to the theory of evolution, thanks to discoveries like genetics, DNA, genomics, and numerous transitional fossils. There is no inherent atheism or materialism to evolution or to science in general either [for more on what evolution actually is all about, see my article on the 10 Popular Misconceptions of Evolution]. If one wishes to live their life entirely by faith, with no appeals to science, I also think they should be consistent and disregard Newton's laws of gravity the next time they go to cross a gorge, or ignore Louis Pasteur's theories on germs the next time they contract a serious disease. Science has helped us survive and brought us technology that extends our life expectancy more with each new generation.

Should it really surprise us then, that those who distort and decry science seem to have such a tendency to lie, cheat, and even sometimes break the law? When they refuse to accept the value of something that has proven to be so crucial to our prosperity, and instead choose to believe that unverified superstitions are the exclusive truth, what wouldn't they be capable of doing to defend their deep convictions? I don't mean to pretend that there have never been scientists who were busted for fraud, but how frequently do you hear creationists challenging the 'morality' of evolution and making blatantly false statements about Darwin being a racist and/or sexist? If this article achieves nothing more, hopefully it will at least show that the word of creationists and intelligent design proponents ought to be taken with a grain of salt... and examined very thoroughly.

1. Anonymous. Wedge strategy. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
2. Afarensis. (2009) Discovery Institute's YouTube Copyright Infringement Claim. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
3. Smith. (2008) A Day in the Life of a DI Fellow: Part III. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
4. Anonymous. Kent Hovind - Sentencing, appeals, and prison life (2007-2009). Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
5. Anonymous. Patriot Bible University - Admissions. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
6. Beschizza, R. (2007) YouTube Bans Anti-Creationist Group Following DMCA Claim. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
7. Anonymous. (2008) Expelled producers accused of copyright infringement. NCSE.com. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
8. Myers, PZ. (2008) A late night quick one. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
9. Lynch, J. (2008) Expelled in Tempe: The Final Countdown. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
10. Anonymous. Expelled - People presented in the film. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.
11. Williams, B. (1998) Creationist Deception Exposed. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2009.