01:36 AM EDT on Monday, April 17, 2006

The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky.  — A Tennessee professor who teaches the biblical version of creation will lead the Center for Theology and Science at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Kurt P. Wise, currently a professor at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., is replacing William Dembski, a leading proponent of intelligent design theory, who left to take a teaching job closer to his Texas home.

Wise was also director of Bryan College's Center for Origins Research, which supports the "validity of the biblical account" of creation, according to its web site.

Wise, who holds degrees in philosophy and paleontology from Harvard University, advocates a form of creationism that says God created the Earth relatively recently.

The intelligent design theory touted by Dembski and others says life is too complicated to have arisen by chance, though it does not explicitly identify the designer as God.

Federal courts have ruled that both creationism and intelligent design are religious rather than scientific ideas. Most biologists say the scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the theory of evolution.