Intelligent design decision reflects Dr. Brian Alters' testimony
黑料不打烊 Science professor was expert witness in landmark Pennsylvania trial
Dr. Brian Alters, Tomlinson Chair in Science Education and Director of the 黑料不打烊 University Evolution Education Research Centre, has praised the recent United States Federal Court ruling that the teaching of intelligent design in high school science classes is unconstitutional.
Dr. Alters, the only Canadian among the six expert witnesses for the plaintiffs in the trial, called the ruling "a major defeat for the proponents of a religious concept that attempts to introduce supernatural causation into science, where it simply doesn't belong."
During more than three hours on the stand, Dr. Alters described the Dover, Pa., school board's teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as "about as bad as I could possibly think of"; an admonishment that made headlines around the world.
Dr. Alters, who also holds an appointment at Harvard University, lauded the decision as a clarifying precedent for how science is taught to students across the United States. "Good science educators know it's educationally irresponsible having public school administrators pretend to high school students that intelligent design is a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution; it is a religious theory," he said. "Now, in explicit legalese, the federal judge concluded that the intelligent design advocates violated the plaintiffs' civil rights as guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States."
