UVSC's Religious Studies Department hosted professors from all over the country Friday, Dec. 1, 2006, for its annual Intelligent Design Conference, giving students and the community an opportunity to discuss religious and secular topics.

Intelligent design is an outlook that challenges the biological evolutionary theory and attempts to explain some phenomena through an intelligent creative process. The ideas presented do not endorse one way of viewing religion or evolution, but instead give a wide range of ideas on the topic, according to UVSC's Religious Studies Department.

"Intelligent design is the idea that there are certain phenomena in nature that are best explained in reference to an intelligent designer rather than evolution alone," said Brian Burch of the UVSC Philosophy department and chair of the Intelligent Design Committee.

The professors who spoke represented many backgrounds and beliefs. The speakers have backgrounds in biology, philosophy and theology and come from universities and centers from Georgetown University to Florida State University.

Some of the topics discussed on Friday were the fundamentals of intelligent design, evolution and faith questions, how evolution and faith relate to physics, and the social implications of all of these topics.

The community's involvement was greater this year than it has been in the last 10 years, much to the delight of the Intelligent Design Committee, Burch said.

"We are always worried that the theoretical issues will not be addressed in the way they should, and that the conference will be too scientific for the general public," Burch said. "This year's conference addressed the topics in a healthy way."

Copyright Brigham Young University 4 Dec 2006