Christine Shellska is a second-year PhD student in the department of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary. She is currently researching the communication strategies the Discovery Institute is using to position intelligent design as a scientific theory.
Christine Shellska at the podium, 2010-10-01
Photograph : J. Jarry
In this presentation I briefly review arguments that discredit Intelligent Design (ID) as a scientific theory because it fails to comply with acceptable scientific practices. Although the scientific community rejects ID, and the legal community has deemed it to be religion, influential people from powerful institutions are accepting ID theory’s claims to scientificity, and the rejection of evolutionary theory in favour of creationism persists among the general public. I argue that the Discovery Institute, ID’s primary advocate, is more appropriately conceived of as a public relations organization than a scientific research institution, and I attempt to broaden the discussion by identifying issues left unexamined when ID is challenged as a scientific theory. I propose an alternative way of critiquing the Discovery Institute by exposing the communications strategies they use to penetrate secular institutions. Using concepts from Actor Network Theory (ANT) enhanced with theoretical insights from risk communications, I argue that the Discovery Institute’s communication strategies include attempts to disrupt the translation of the theory of evolution into education and the cultural arena by establishing public trust using appeals to religion and morality, and exploiting anti-science sentiments.