This is an outright fraud.

First the question asked was deliberately misleading. Those surveyed were basically asked if they believe Darwin’s theories on evolution were the complete explanation for the diversity of life. 

Naturally, anyone who knows anything about biology would answer no—because Darwin’s contributions now form a tiny, if foundational, role in our overall modern understanding. But the Discovery Institute (DI) presents this negative answer as if it were a rejection of “Darwinism” meaning the idea of natural selection. 

If qualified biologists were asked “Do you believe that natural selection in all its forms explains the bulk of observed biological diversity” they would all, to a man, answer “yes.”

In asking one question and pretending they’ve asked something else, the DI is doing exactly what it was created to do—lie. This is a deliberate, willful, and calculated lie, and there is no possibility that those behind it are merely blinded by religious bias. 

They must necessarily understand that evolution is real, that natural selection is the driving force behind biological diversity, and that people can only be made to doubt it by trickery. 

One cannot prove a truth through lies, so their only motive can be to continue to bilk support money out of the weak minded and gullible. They are preying on the religious biases of others in order to defraud them out of patronage, and are willing to undermine the intelligence of whole generations in order to do it.

There is a special place in hell, for such charlatans as these.