Don't expect Francisco J. Ayala to support intelligent design when he speaks tonight at Duquesne University.

The biologist from the University of California-Irvine says no intelligent design is evident in the workings of natural selection and evolution.

"The design of organisms is not intelligent, as it would be expected from an engineer, but imperfect and worse: defects, dysfunctions, oddities, waste, and cruelty pervade the living world," Dr. Ayala stated in a preview of his speech, "Darwin in the History of Ideas: From Natural Theology to Natural Selection."

The presentation will be held from 7 to 10 tonight in the Power Center Ballroom on the Duquesne University campus.

"Mutation and selection have jointly driven the marvelous process that, starting from microscopic organisms, has yielded orchids, birds, and humans," Dr. Ayala has written. "The theory of evolution conveys chance and necessity, randomness and determinism, jointly enmeshed in the stuff of life."

Dr. Ayala, ordained as a Dominican priest before deciding to pursue a scientific career, has published 950 articles and 31 books including "Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion," "Human Evolution," "In the Light of Evolution, Volume I and II" and "Biodiversity and Extinction." His book, "Darwin and Intelligent Design," was published in 2006.

In his speech tonight, Dr. Ayala will focus on Darwin's theory of evolution, which, he said, "accounts for the design of organisms, and for their wondrous diversity, as the result of the gradual accumulation of spontaneous mutations sorted out by natural selection."

Along with evolution, Dr. Ayala's interests include the philosophy of biology and bioethics, and relationships between science and religion, including the teaching of evolution in the schools.

His speech, free to the public, is part of a ongoing series sponsored by Duquesne University to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his "Origin of Species" and re-examine the relationship between evolution and religion.