The answer would appear to be no. But the fact that it’s a question at all is worrisome to me.

An article in Salon goes fairly in-depth into the the $10 million that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given to the Discovery Institute over the past five years. Yes, that Discovery Institute, the charlatans who are pushing the “intelligent design” bullshit.

According to the article, a Gates Foundation director says the dough went to a specific project called the “Cascadia Project” which “strictly” deals with transportation in the Northwest USA.

From the article:

“I’ve been getting so many e-mails from people who are frothing at the mouth at this,” says Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, whose tag line is “Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools.” “There is confusion about, ‘What is Bill Gates doing supporting intelligent design?’” As far as Scott is concerned, the Microsoft chairman is not funding intelligent design.

But, seriously. Gates should demand that the Cascadia project be spun-off from the Discovery Institute if he continues to fund it via his foundation. Think what you will about Gates — evil monopolist, etc, etc — he’s one of the US’s leading technologists. He needs to make a firm and loud stand against the this bogus intelligent design claptrap. permanent link to this post