2008-03-04 At the Heartland and Discovery Institutes, a Shared Rhetoric

2008-03-04 Matt Nisbet Framing Science \Discovery Institute\The Heartland Institute\teach the controversy http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2008/03/at_the_heartland_and_discovery.php At the Heartland and Discovery Institutes, a Shared Rhetoric At the Heartland and Discovery Institutes, a Shared Rhetoric  In seeking to bend science to fit with their preferred policy goals, the Heartland Institute (HI) chooses as a rhetorical bedfellow the Discovery Institute (DI), the think tank that brought us the public relations campaign against the teaching of evolution in schools. Not a bad choice strategically. After all, if you can successfully challenge the theory of evolution, you can challenge almost anything in science, no matter how overwhelming the evidence might be against you.

Consider the language used to describe this week's conference. HI talks about the "theory that human activities are causing a potentially catastrophic warming of the Earth's climate," playing on the colloquial interpretation of "theory" as a hunch, a conjecture, or guess rather than a comprehensive explanation confirmed over time by an overwhelming body of evidence.

&ldquo;In seeking to bend science to fit with their preferred policy goals, the Heartland Institute (HI) chooses as a rhetorical bedfellow the Discovery Institute (DI), the think tank that brought us the public relations campaign against the teaching of evolution in schools.&rdquo;   