DI @ SI
The Discovery Institute has rented out a hall at the Smithsonian to screen a new film that supports Intelligent Design. Yup. And yet, I could not rent out the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the Air and Space Museum for my non-religious wedding.
Here’s the e-mail I sent off to the Smithsonian (giving@si.edu, Mr. Randall Kremer, Public Affairs):
I was shocked to read that the Discovery Institute would be allowed to rent
space at the Smithsonian to screen a movie promoting their non-scientific
agenda. The DI claims that science will verify Intelligent Design; however,
they have yet to publish a paper in a refereed journal. Why do you suppose
that is? Perhaps because their brand of “science” is not science at all.I am an astronomer working with NASA out of Goddard Space Flight Center, and
we already have a difficult battle teaching the public what science is
about. Now that the Smithsonian is associating itself with the DI, our job
will become even more difficult.While the $16,000 donation will be used for science research, the damage
done by the Discovery Institute’s claims that the Smithsonian is a
“co-sponsor” of the event far outweighs any research that could be
accomplished with that $16,000.
[via Pharyngula]