Stephen Weldon, history of science professor, continued the Darwin 2009 series of events into the fall semester with a lecture Thursday at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

Weldon based his lecture on why the debate has become heated in America over the last few decades, as well as the political and religious views behind the people and the groups involved.

“In 1968, a much more radical form of creationism came to be,” Weldon said. “This was a form of scientific creationism, which believed in a young Earth model, or a belief that the Earth was created in only six days.”

He attributed this new form of creationism to some of the decade’s central ideas, including evangelicalism and environmentalism.

Weldon’s lecture also focused on the differences between creationism and intelligent design.

“A creationist is a person who rejects the theory of evolution and believes instead that each species on Earth was put here by a divine being. A creationist might accept micro-evolution [or] changes in the form of a species over time based on natural selection, but rejects the notion that one species can, over time, become another species,” according to the Web site Exploring Constitutional Conflicts, produced by the University of Missouri at Kansas City’s School of Law.

In a Feb. 3 interview with The Daily, Bartlett said of intelligent design, “There are parts to human creativity that are based on physics and parts that are based on more of a spiritual nature. Intelligent design is the science that looks into those types of causes. It describes certain aspects, but it is not a complete explanation.”

“The 80s and 90s had a big impact on these theories, with the rise of the intelligent design movement,” Weldon said. “This opened up modern scholarship and knowledge in a way nothing else had up to this point.”

Jonathan Bartlett, a contributor to the intelligent design Web site uncommondescent.com said he thinks it is important for people to question the different creation theories.

“When there is a theory that offers itself as a total observation, it is good to challenge that,” Bartlett said.

This year marks Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his most popular work, “On the Origin of Species.”

Since January, OU has hosted a series of lectures and events to encourage the debate of Darwinian evolution, making it one of the largest series of Darwin events in the world.

“I am proud to be part of such a unique series of events,” said Piers Hale, history of science professor and co-chair of the Darwin 2009 steering committee.

Although the series focuses on Darwin, the schedule of seminars, lectures and events is designed to discuss a variety of creation theories.

Hale said the speakers are some of the top theorists in the world on their subjects and would encourage people to take advantage of the lectures.

“I came to the lecture because my professor recommended it, but I found it all interesting and ended up learning a lot,” said Jessi Stecker, science education senior. “I would strongly recommend other students to attend these events.”