Bo Emerson, "Intelligent design suit inspired by local man's ideas" (2005)

Many of the arguments against evolution in a nationally watched lawsuit come from a soft-spoken retiree in Peachtree City.

Charles Thaxton, 66, co-wrote two seminal books on intelligent design and edited "Of People and Pandas," the anti-Darwin text offered as a resource for schoolchildren in Dover, Pa.

Last October, the Dover school board required students in a ninth-grade biology class to learn about intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. That move was challenged in a lawsuit by 11 Dover parents who call it an attempt to promote a religion, Christianity. The lawsuit went to trial Monday.

Thaxton was deposed this summer by those bringing the lawsuit, and testified that he had nothing to do with the Dover school board's action. "I don't even know where Dover is," he said in an interview Monday.

But Dover knows about Thaxton, as do other municipalities around the country where educators are being pressured to show the hand of the Creator at work.

He testified in Kansas in May when the state was considering adding intelligent design to school curricula.

To Thaxton, the attention is surprising. "When we wrote that book, we had no idea what was going to be coming down the road following it," he said of "The Mystery of Life's Origin," a 1984 work published by Philosophical Library Inc. that introduced the phrase "intelligent design" into the contemporary debate and served as a touchstone for the movement.

Self-described creationist Phillip Johnson seized on Thaxton's book and in 1992, after many conversations with Thaxton and others, published "Darwin on Trial," which galvanized anti-Darwin forces under the intelligent design flag.

"He ... made public all these arguments about intelligent design, even though he is not a scientist," said Thaxton of Johnson. "I gave him the vocabulary."

Critics suggest that intelligent design is creationism dressed up in a lab coat, while supporters, including Thaxton, say the concept proceeds from observations, not faith. He describes it as a way to explain structures that are obviously the work of an intelligent creator.

"If you're walking along a beach and you see ripples in sand, you realize some natural process, such as waves, are responsible for that," Thaxton said. "But what if you find 'John Loves Mary' also written in the sand? You wouldn't think that a clam crawled up there and did that, nor would waves. You would think that somebody, maybe John or Mary, did that, not because of religion, but because it fits the pattern of your experience."

For Thaxton, "John Loves Mary" comes in the guise of DNA, the chain of nucleotides that control cell development. Thaxton sees DNA as a form of information — the handwriting of a higher-order designer.

Critics say the idea is untestable pseudo-science and bad theology. Intelligent design was proposed by English theologian William Paley in 1802, said Sarah Pallas, associate professor of biology at Georgia State University. "That was all debunked at that time. Now the intelligent design people are resurrecting this idea."

Thaxton said the ideas were first voiced by the Stoics of ancient Rome, predating Christ.

Thaxton, who says he is a devout Christian, incorporates the Bible into the curriculum that he uses in a home school program offered through an organization called Konos Academy. Every year about 100 Atlanta students who are taught at home attend courses offered by Thaxton and his wife, Carole, who wrote most of the Konos curriculum. "It is a way of representing the Biblical worldview, with God at the apex of all knowledge," says a Web site describing the program.

Thaxton was born in Dallas and attended Texas Tech. He then earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Iowa State University and studied at Harvard and Brandeis, according to the Konos Web site.

He was living in Prague, Czech Republic, and teaching at Charles University when a sarcoma was found in his right leg. In 1996 he returned to the United States, and his leg was amputated at the hip. He said friends in Fayetteville suggested he come to metro Atlanta to recuperate and he found he enjoyed Peachtree City.

A second bout with cancer in 2003 necessitated the removal of one lung. He said a recent CAT scan showed him as cancer-free, though he tires more easily now.

Thaxton, bearded and bespectacled, gets around with the help of crutches and a lightweight wheelchair.

He plans to leave at the end of this week to host a conference in Prague on intelligent design.

He said he didn't expect it to displace Darwinism anytime soon and knew the debate would continue. "It's not going to go away."