Defense Makes Its Case in Intelligent-Design Trial

Harrisburg, Pa.

After weeks of hearing “intelligent design” described as a combination of amateur science and religious belief, lawyers for the Dover school district are attempting to strike back, with the help of an academic scholar friendly to their cause.

The legal team representing the south-central Pennsylvania school system—in what has become an internationally watched trial—opened its defense Oct. 17 by calling Michael J. Behe, a Lehigh University biochemistry professor. He is one of the nation’s most prominent supporters of the controversial concept, which suggests that certain facets of the natural world show signs of having been guided by an unidentified master architect. A district policy requiring that students be introduced to the concept of intelligent design in 9th grade biology classes sparked the lawsuit.

Mr. Behe is the author of Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution , which since its publication in 1996, has emerged as seminal work in the intelligent-design community. His testimony on behalf of the defense reflected many of the core arguments made by lawyers for...