Challenging Darwin; Advocates of Intelligent Design argue for new thought.(LIFE - SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: Jen Waters, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Robert Ehrlich is trying to solve the mysteries of science.

In the Smithsonian Associates' series "Socrates and His World, the Unsolved Mysteries of Science," Mr. Ehrlich, a professor of physics at George Mason University in Fairfax, is discussing various topics, including Intelligent Design.

The Intelligent Design movement argues that life is too complex to have occurred by chance and that there must be a designer behind it. It rejects the notion that natural selection, or survival of the fittest, is responsible for having produced the array of species existing in the world.

Using the Socratic method of teaching by asking questions, Mr. Ehrlich plans to debate with class members whether Intelligent Design is a valid scientific alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution and to outline how it differs from biblical creationism.

"It's important because of a court decision in 1987 that considered a Louisiana state law that required public schools to teach biblical creationism along with evolution," Mr. Ehrlich says. "The Supreme Court overturned the law and said in that decision that the state could not mandate the teaching of biblical creationism as an alternative to evolution. However, they could mandate that other …