The four invited speakers include two fellows from the staunchly pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute and two authors who take a less antagonistic approach.

"We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to get together on the pro and con sides of the argument in the view of contemporary science," said Michael Popich, a Westminster philosophy professor who organized the conference with Brian Birch of UVSC.

Popich and Birch wanted the conference to tackle science and theology. They chose to focus the discussion on the debate surrounding intelligent design. Proponents reject Darwin's theory of evolution, the accepted basis for modern biology, saying the world is too complex to arise through the natural selection of chance mutations.

Arguments between the most extreme "IDers" and "evolutionists" tend to devolve into fights about the existence of God. Two of the conference panelists take a different tack.

John Haught, former theology chairman at Georgetown University and author of several books, makes the case that evolution points to the existence of God.

"I argue that instead of being afraid of Darwinian evolution, it can really be a great gift to theology," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Virginia. "Religious people should never be afraid of facing the truth. And if it requires some deepening of our perspective, then let it be deepened."

Co-panelist Michael Ruse, an author and philosophy professor at Florida State University, also disagrees with people who claim evolution is inseparable from atheism. The self-described nonbeliever and hard-line Darwinian points his criticism not at evangelicals, but at stalwarts in his own camp who argue evolutionary theory negates the need for belief in God.

"Frankly, I think [that] sort of knee-jerk atheism is sort of a kissing-cousin to creationism," he said from his home in Florida.

Ruse and Haught, who both accept evolution, will be paired for panel discussions with intelligent design researchers.

Paul Nelson is a philosopher who focuses on developmental and evolutionary biology. He is a fellow at the Discovery Institute and International Society for Complexity, Information and Design.

Robin Collins is a philosophy professor at Messiah College, a private Christian college in Pennsylvania. Also a Discovery Institute fellow, he focuses on the relationship between physics and religion.

"It's a good group," said Westminster's Popich. "Whatever side of the argument you're on, you're sure to hear something you agree with."

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* Nicole Stricker can be contacted at nstricker@sltrib.com or 801-257-8999.