Charles Thaxton says he wants to make one thing clear: "I'm not the leader of any movement. I just wrote a book."

But the ideas in his book, developed in subsequent publications, are highly contentious: Recent scientific discoveries, the American argues, indicate that life on Earth is not only the result of millions of years of evolution, but also the work of an intelligent creator.

The Intelligent Design theory is at the heart of a high-profile federal court case in the United States, where a judge is to decide whether biology classes can teach students alternatives to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, long considered gospel in the scientific community.

Now Thaxton, a scientist, a former professor at Charles University and a leading proponent of Intelligent Design, is bringing his controversial ideas to Prague, where he'll present them to the public and the scientific community at an Oct. 22 conference — the first of its kind in Europe — titled Darwin and Design: A Challenge for 21st Century Science.

Religion or research?

Sipping a beer in a corner of a Prague 6 restaurant, Thaxton, gray-haired, soft-spoken and the survivor of two bouts with cancer, does not look like a revolutionary. Yet he believes that natural selection, the cornerstone of Darwin's theory, cannot on its own explain the complexity of life on earth. A superior intelligent force is at work, he says, and this belief constitutes a direct challenge to Darwin's 145-year-old theory.

Thaxton's views have provoked heated debate among American academics, with many accusing him of promoting religion disguised as academic research.

Intelligent Design, still little-known in the Czech Republic, is due for an introduction, Thaxton says: "We want to introduce Czechs to the subject ... that's why the conference."

Thaxton, 66, who describes himself as a scientist first and a Christian second, says he organized the convention in the Czech capital because it was his home from 1992 to 1997, a period when he taught a course in the history of science at Charles University. Since then he and his wife Carole have moved to Atlanta, Georgia, but return regularly to visit.

Interest in the debate appears keen: Most seats in the 1,050-capacity Congress Center in Nusle, Prague 4, have already been booked for the conference. Thaxton says private donors and five American foundations have contributed to the $100,000 cost of the event. Participants will also be charged a 650 Kč ($26) registration fee.

Speakers, who are experts in fields including molecular biology, chemistry and math, come from the United States, England, France, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

Unafraid of controversy

Could Intelligent Design arouse the kind of controversy here that it has in the United States? "I would certainly hope so," Thaxton replies. "This is the kind of thing that every thinking person needs to investigate."

In his home country, a group of families has sued to have Intelligent Design removed from school biology curriculum in Dover, Pennsylvania.

Thaxton, who started to develop his theories while researching the structure of DNA and writing his book The Mystery of Life's Origin, published in 1984, denies he is pushing a religious agenda. "Intelligent Design is part of an inquiry into the natural world," he insists.

However, Jaroslav Flegr, a lecturer at the Natural Sciences Faculty of Charles University, says he knows of no scientific support for Intelligent Design, which he describes as either an attempt to provide people with false information or the result of ignorance of evolutionary biology. "But it is good business — books on the subject sell 10 times more than scientific books," Flegr adds.

Professor Jan Zrzavý, head of the biology faculty at the South Bohemian University in České Budějovice, dismisses Intelligent Design as incompatible with science. Zrzavý says, however, that he is not opposed to allowing students to study alternative theories. "We can stay calm as long as this is only about parallel education ... and not about banning Darwinism."