Topeka ? A retired law professor who’s sometimes called the father of the intelligent design movement plans to speak Saturday at Washburn University, amid an ongoing debate over how evolution is taught in Kansas’ public schools.

Phillip Johnson’s visit is sponsored by Christian Challenge, a student group on the Topeka campus. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the university’s union.

Johnson, who taught at the University of California in Berkeley, is best known for a 1991 book, “Darwin on Trial,” a critique of evolution and the work of 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin, who outlined the theory in an 1859 book.

His speech is only three days before the scheduled opening of a two-year exhibit on evolution at the Natural History Museum at Kansas University.

Also, the State Board of Education expects to vote next month on proposed science standards that contain language expressing skepticism about evolution.

Organizers of the event said they didn’t invite Johnson because of the board’s discussions on science standards or the evolution exhibit, but because they wanted to inform the public about the debate over the theory and intelligent design.

“It isn’t a point of view that we really ever hear on campus from professors on campus,” said Joe Foreman Jr., Christian Challenge’s president and a senior studying economics. “I just hope people get more informed and realize there is credible opposition to evolution.”

Intelligent design argues that some natural features are best explained by an intelligent cause because they are well-ordered and complex.