Charles Thaxton

Charles Burton Thaxton (born 1939) is an American physical chemist. He is a proponent of special creation who went on to become one of the first intelligent design authors.

He was a Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture,

Biography Thaxton earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Iowa State University in 1970. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "A technique for cooling single crystals below 90 degrees K for X-ray and the crystal structures of dihydrogen hexa-tantalum octadecachloride-6-hydrate, and the photodimer of 1,1-dimethyl 2,5-diphenyl 1-silacyclopentadiene". He went on to complete post-doctorate programs in the history of science at Harvard University and the molecular biology laboratories of Brandeis University.

Thaxton has co-authored several books, including The Mystery of Life's Origin and The Soul of Science.

He was the editor of the first edition of the intelligent design textbook, Of Pandas and People. The book was featured prominently in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District and the sequence of drafts that show the transition between the terms "creation" and "creator" to "design", "designer", and "intelligent design", proved important in the judge's decision.

Thaxton stated that he preferred intelligent design to creationism because he "wasn’t comfortable with the typical vocabulary that for the most part creationists were using because it didn’t express what I was trying to do. They were wanting to bring God into the discussion, and I was wanting to stay within the empirical domain and do what you can do legitimately there".

Thaxton and his wife, Carole Thaxton, founded the "KONOS Academy," which is a private Christian 1-12 school in Tyrone, Georgia, United States. Konos celebrated its 20-year anniversary in December 2021. He also teaches at Charles University in Prague.