Faculty members in the anthropology, biology, and geology departments at Southern Methodist University have sent letters to the college administration to protest a conference, planned for April on the Texas campus, about intelligent design, the Associated Press reported.

The letters said that the “Darwin vs. Design” conference, which is co-sponsored by the campus’s Christian Legal Society, would make it appear that scientists at Southern Methodist believed in intelligent design, which holds that life is too complex to have evolved without the intervention of an intelligent agent, and which has been endorsed by President Bush.

Critics, including a federal judge, say ID is little more than creationism under a new name. The AP quoted a university official as saying that Southern Methodist did not endorse the event but would not prevent it from taking place. —Andrew Mytelka