Barbara Forrest, history and political science professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, declared Thursday, “my talk today is an alarm” during a lecture on creationism in the Howe-Russell Geo-Science Complex.Forrest, author of “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intellectual Design,” urged a large crowd of students and professors to take action against the Louisiana Science Education Act, which was passed by the Louisiana Legislature and signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal this summer.   The act states that the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will assist teachers and administrators to create an “environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.””It is very much a political issue,” Forrest said. “Politics is being used to advance intelligent design.”The act, which was signed on July 25, is the first of its kind to be passed in the U.S. The act also states that standard textbooks supplied by the school system may be used along with “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner.””It is a creationism bill,” Forrest said. “If a teacher implements it by bringing creationist material into a science classroom, that teacher is acting either out of ignorance or unprofessional conduct.”Forrest called on the science community to take action against the act. Because it does not mention “intelligent design” or “creationism,” the act’s contents cannot be called “unconstitutional” outright. Although the act has a religious disclaimer, Forrest said it is creationism in disguise.”Academics are citizens, and we are parents,” Forrest said. “We can act and we should act and we must act in that capacity.” Forrest testified in Federal Court during the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, one of the first challenges to intelligent design in the U.S. The trial successfully kept intelligent design out of public schools because it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, being deemed too close to creationism and, in turn, religious affiliations.—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]