Barbara Forrest

Forrest at her New Orleans talk about creation and evolution in 2011.

Barbara Carroll Forrest (born June 25, 1952 ) is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University . She gained notoriety for her criticism of the Intelligent Design (ID) movement and the Discovery Institute . Her testimony as an expert in the US Kitzmiller vrs case was of particular importance . Dover Area School District.

biography

Forrest received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Tulane University , since then she has held the Chair of Philosophy in the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond .

In 2004, together with biology professor Paul Gross , she uncovered the goals and strategies of the ID movement in the USA to undermine the US curriculum on evolutionary theory . They demonstrated, on the one hand, the lack of a scientific hypothesis of the intelligent design movement and, on the other hand, confirmed the religious roots and political ambitions of the movement. Forrest is a member of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and the Supervisory Committee on the Separation of Church and State.

The process Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District

In the process “Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District ”Forrest played a key role as an expert in 2005. After the movement tried unsuccessfully to expel her as a witness , the ID movement vilified her as a conspiracy theorist . Forrest testified on Oct. 5 that the intelligent design movement was of ecclesiastical origin and that the term "designer" was used as a synonym for Christian God in order to circumvent violations of US school laws. She proved this, among other things, with an analysis of older, unpublished versions of the ID textbook Of Pandas And People , in which where "Intelligent Design" or "Designer" was later said, "Creation science" or "Creator" "originally said.

Your statement was decisive in the process, because the judge followed your opinion in his judgment and decided that “intelligent design is not a science”, that it “cannot break away from its creationist and therefore religious roots” and that therefore “the teaching of intelligent design” Design hypotheses violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution ”.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford University Press, 2004.
2. ^ Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
3. ^ Letter supporting defendants' motion in limine ( Memento of the original dated July 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District 
4. ↑ Defendants' motion in limine ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Decision ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 310 kB), Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District 
6. ^ Conclusion of Ruling. In: Kitzmiller vrs. Dover Area School District. 04 cv 2688, December 20, 2005, p. 136 (English, wikisource ).