A clarification was added to this article Oct. 13.

The Oct. 12 article “A universal debate” contained a misleading quotation of John Patterson, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering. The quotation “There has never been a case in the history of science in which a well-entrenched naturalistic theory [has been] thrown out” was incomplete and should have indicated such a theory has never been discredited in favor of a supernatural explanation.Not everybody agrees how or why the universe began.

True — many scientists and academics have long since discredited biblical creationism, the belief that God created the world as described in Genesis, replacing it with evolution and the Big Bang.

However, another explanation, called “Intelligent Design,” is slowly gaining proponents — and opponents — nationwide.

Members of the ISU community will have ample opportunity to select a side themselves this week. The validity of intelligent design arguments, from widely divergent perspectives, will be the topic of lectures Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday’s lecture, by Del Ratzsch, professor of philosophy at the private Michigan school Calvin College, is sponsored by Areopagus. That organization, for faculty, staff and students, was created this year to promote scholarly discussion of Christianity and the relevance of the Christian worldview throughout the ISU community, said Randy Gabrielse, director of Areopagus. The lecture is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Benton Auditorium of the Scheman Building.

On Thursday, two ISU faculty members who have been long noted for their arguments against the teaching of creationism and against the existence of God will critique a 2004 intelligent design book by an ISU professor. That discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m. in 124 Ross Hall.

Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, co-wrote “The Privileged Planet.” The book proposes that a correlation exists between the ability of Earth to sustain life and the breadth of scientific discoveries about the universe that can be made, with relative ease, from Earth — a correlation between “habitability” and “measurability.”

From there, Gonzalez and co-author Jay Richards, a philosopher and theologian at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, use the work of Ratzsch, Baylor’s William Dembski and other well-known intelligent design theorists to infer that the correlation between habitability and measurability is the result of design.

“Once perceived, the thought creeps up quietly but insistently: The universe, whatever else it is, is designed for discovery,” they write in the concluding chapter of “The Privileged Planet.”

Gonzalez said the history of intelligent design began in the mid-1980s and has slowly gained credence ever since.

“We’re in the middle, in my opinion, of literally the birth of a new movement,” he said.

Gonzalez and his colleagues are careful to point out their research cannot say who is doing the intelligent design. It may be the Christian God, or it may not.

“A systematic way of detecting design in nature — that’s all it is,” Gonzalez said. “It cannot identify the designer uniquely.”

Hector Avalos, associate professor of religious studies, has debated the validity of creationism, the existence of God and Jesus’ resurrection, among other topics, while at Iowa State. He said Gonzalez’s work attempts to portray “a dressed-up version of Christian theology” as science.

“The premises are religious,” said Avalos, one of the two men who will present arguments against Dembski and intelligent design Thursday evening. “You cannot use science to establish a religious conclusion.”

John Patterson, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, gained national fame in the 1980s for his public battles with creationists.

Patterson said supernatural explanations for phenomena have no place in science because history has proven those explanations “pathetic.”

“The track record is completely one-sided,” he said. “There has never been a case in the history of science in which a well-entrenched naturalistic theory [has been] thrown out.”

Patterson, who has written a review of the book and will present a scientific critique of it and intelligent design on Thursday, said he enjoyed “The Privileged Planet.”

“The book is rich with good science in it,” he said.

But, he said, the intentions of many intelligent design theorists were clear.

“It is a religious apologetic disguised as science,” he said.

Gonzalez said this common charge isn’t true and reflects mistaken beliefs about science by its critics.

“They come from a specific philosophical point of view,” he said. “Any explanation apart from law and chance is not permitted in science.”

What he and Richards argue in the book and Ratzsch will say Tuesday is that categorically eliminating those explanations is a mistake.

Who: Calvin College Philosophy professor Del Ratzsch

What: “Could

Intelligent Design be Legitimate Science?”

Where: Benton

Auditorium,

Scheman Building

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Who: Hector Avalos, associate professor

of religious studies,

and John Patterson,

professor emeritus

of materials science

and engineering

What: “Intelligent Design: Is it Science

or Religion?”

Where: 124 Ross Hall

When: 6:30 p.m.

Thursday