Yep.
One of the first scientific institutions, the Royal Society of London was started by an occult Rosicrucian fraternity known as the
Invisible College. They're basically another flavor of freemasonry.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the religion of Evolution became institutionalized through the concerted efforts of "learned societies" like the
Lunar Society (of which Erasmus was a member of) and the
X Club, which were comprised of numerous freemasons who rallied around doctrines of materialistic and eventually Darwinian mysticism. At the time these clubs were heavily criticized for holding too much influence over the academic world, and it's been full-blown fish-to-man fairytales ever since.
So yea, the reason we have the state sponsored religion of Evolution today is mostly because influential drinking buddies in previous centuries really liked the idea of man transforming from primitive forms of life. It was never based on science, and it was established dogma throughout the academic system from the get-go. The main reason these institutions even exist today in their present form is because they are founded on a mystical creation story and supported by the religious fervor that inevitably comes with a devout following of that creation story.