A modern version of creationism
Intelligent design theory evolved from classical creationism as an adaptation to growing scientific evidence for evolution. It accepts that the Earth is several billion years old and that species can adapt to their environment but rejects the concept that all life forms evolved from a common ancestor. According to intelligent design theory each species was created separately by an Intelligent Designer.
Intelligent design theory is promoted by the Discovery Institute in Seattle, USA, which is funded mostly by fundamentalist Christian organizations and has connections to Christian reconstructionism, an extreme Christian faction that aims to turn the USA into a fundamentalist theocracy.
The Discovery Institute managed to have intelligent design included in the school curricula of Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and Georgia and hopes to achieve the same in Texas and Indiana. Its most prominent spokespersons are Michael Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and author of the book Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, and Professor of Law Phillip E. Johnson at the University of California.
Wakefield, M. (2003) Another unholy row in the making. Christian academics in Seattle are disputing Darwin's theory. The Australian, 29 October 2003.