Loyola University New Orleans will present two events on campus, November 6 and 7, focusing on intelligent design. Both programs, part of the university’s President’s Forum on Current Issues and Controversies, are free and open to the public.

On Monday, November 6, the public lecture, “Science, Religion, and the Question of Cosmic Purpose,” will be presented by John F. Haught, Ph.D., the Landegger Distinguished Professor of Theology at Georgetown University. Haught’s area of expertise is systematic theology, with a special interest in issues of science, cosmology, ecology, and reconciling evolution and religion. He is the author of several important books on the creation-evolution controversy, including Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, and Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution. He also established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion. The lecture, scheduled for 7 p.m. in Nunemaker Auditorium of Monroe Hall, will also feature responses from Barbara Forrest, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, and Paul A. Nelson, Ph.D., Discovery Institute Fellow and adjunct professor in the Department of Science and Religion at Biola University.

Forrest, an outspoken critic of intelligent design, is co-author of Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, which examines the goals and strategies of the intelligent design movement and its attempts to undermine the teaching of evolutionary biology. She serves on the board of directors of the National Center for Science Education, the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association.

Intelligent design advocate Nelson is a fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design. He has published articles in Biology & Philosophy, Zygon, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and Touchstone, as well as chapters in the anthologies Mere Creation, Signs of Intelligence, and Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics.

On Tuesday, November 7, the all-day program, “What’s At Stake? Evolution, Intelligent Design, and Faith,” will feature lectures on the issue of intelligent design. Panelists include John F. Haught, Ph.D., presenting a theologian’s perspective; Loyola University New Orleans Evolutionary Biologist Craig Hood, presenting a biologist’s perspective; Paul A. Nelson, Ph.D., presenting the case for intelligent design; and, Barbara Forrest, Ph.D., presenting the case against intelligent design. The program, scheduled from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., in Nunemaker Auditorium of Monroe Hall, will also include a question-and-answer period between panelists and members of the audience.

Loyola’s President’s Forum seeks to explore and discuss some of the most compelling contemporary issues facing us today. Featuring internationally recognized scholars, the forum’s goal is to develop a dialogue with the larger community that helps to deepen our understanding and challenge us to move toward a more just and enlightened society.

Loyola University New Orleans is a Jesuit-Catholic institution with a total student enrollment of 4,724 including 800 law students.

For more information on the President’s Forum, contact Loyola’s Office of Public Affairs at (504) 861-5888 or publaff@loyno.edu.