We want to examine what's going wrong in teaching and learning here. Alters is currently one of only a handful of scholars doing research on the subject of evolution education. It's incredibly under-researched. It's a very sensitive topic. A lot of people would rather not go into a field that upsets people as much as evolution.
Religion enters into that, of course.
Some of evolution's most strident opponents are fundamentalist Christians. An ex-cop, he doesn't scare easy. Not that he goes looking for a fight. Alters approaches evolution's critics respectfully and he doesn't make light of religious beliefs. Usually, they say no, they would believe the Earth was spherical.