Distinguished Lecturer Series, Barbara Forrest

Dr. Forrest was a key expert witness in the Dover Case and co-authored Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design with biologist Paul R. Gross.

Dr. Forrest will lecture this Friday, 4/18, at 3:30 p.m. in the Harte Research Institute (HRI) Room 127.

“Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse: A Closer Look at Intelligent Design”

In 1996, the Discovery Institute, a conservative Seattle think tank, established its Center for Science and Culture. From this obscure organization, which is the headquarters of the intelligent design (ID) creationist movement in the United States, have come virtually all of the major creationist flare-ups in the last twelve years. Although its proponents present ID as a new "scientific paradigm," it is the direct descendant of the "scientific creationism" of the 1980s. Discovery Institute creationists and their supporters are attacking both state science standards and local science curricula. Using seemingly harmless code language, they are disguising their effort to get ID into public school science classes as an "alternative" scientific theory. They insist that students must be taught the "controversy" surrounding evolution, which requires teaching the "strengths and weaknesses" of "Darwinism." However, the movement's leaders themselves define ID in religious terms and have admitted the scientific sterility of their program. Nonetheless, they continue to execute their "Wedge Strategy," which is nothing less than a plan to completely undermine both public school science education and the constitutional separation of church and state.