AMES(AP) - Over the past year, Guillermo Gonzalez, a soft-spoken science professor at Iowa State University, has had his beliefs condemned, his academics questioned and his book - and a documentary based on it - ridiculed by his peers.

Gonzalez, a Cuban immigrant with a doctorate in astronomy, risked his reputation in espousing "intelligent design," a theory that has revived the creationism vs. evolution debate in public schools, universities and statehouses nationwide.

The theory suggests that the universe and living things are so finely tuned and complex, they must have been designed by a supreme, intelligent force.

To religious conservatives, Gonzalez is held in high esteem as co-author of the 2004 book, "The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery."

Critics, including dozens of Gonzalez's colleagues at Iowa State, say his book is not based on science at all.

"I think there is a real need to discuss it, but things have become so uncivil," said Gonzalez, sitting at a desk in a dimly lit office cluttered with stacks of papers, books and curled posters of the universe.

"So many people are coming to the discussion with their minds already made up … they label it creationism so they can easily dismiss it. It really is quite different. But if you label it a religion, then it's easy to keep it out of science," he said.

Across the country, battles have flared over teaching the theory in public schools. President Bush, state and federal lawmakers and school board members have said they would like to see intelligent design taught alongside Darwinian evolution.

When a school board in Dover, Pa., voted in October 2004 to make intelligent design part of the biology curriculum, parents sued. After a lengthy, landmark trial, a federal judge in December declared the theory religious rather than scientific, ruling it violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

Last month, the Vatican newspaper entered the fray, publishing an article saying intelligent design doesn't belong to science, and teaching it alongside evolution creates confusion in the classroom.

Gonzalez, who identifies himself only as a Protestant, says he is irritated with religious groups that use intelligent design to advance an agenda. He is also frustrated by those who refuse to consider it on scientific merits.

His argument: Darwinism does not mandate followers to adopt atheism; just as intelligent design doesn't require a belief in God.

"Intelligent design doesn't go so far as to identify the agent of change," Gonzalez said. "It doesn't start with religious assumptions.

"But I do think it falls within the realm of science. It's a way of looking at nature, its patterns, and explaining its complexities."

Last fall, Gonzalez was the unnamed target of a petition circulating on the Iowa State campus renouncing intelligent design as legitimate science. More than 120 ISU faculty signed it.

"It's nothing personal against Dr. Gonzalez …" said Hector Avalos, a professor of religious studies at Iowa State. "But a lot of people were concerned that Iowa State could become a place being marketed where intelligent design research was taking place and that it had some validity in school curricula."

Weeks later, another 80 faculty members at the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa added their signatures.

"It's a cop-out to say design theory is not religious," said Lawrence Krauss, director of the Center for Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University.

Last summer, a similar reaction unfolded at Lehigh University over the writings of professor Michael Behe. A biochemistry professor and advocate of intelligent design, Behe wrote a best-selling book in 1996, "Darwin's Black Box," and testified at trial on behalf of the Dover school board.

In August, other Lehigh biology faculty attempted to distance themselves, saying they remain "unequivocal in their support of evolutionary theory."

Krauss and others acknowledge professors have a right to their personal beliefs. The problem, they say, is when they use their work or the university to validate them.

"The standard reaction of scientists on stuff like this that goes over the edge is to roll your eyes and ignore it," Krauss said. "And that's an unfortunate reaction, however, because in the public domain you have to go out and fight those ideas."

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On the Net: Iowa State University: http://www.iastate.edu/

The Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/