Despite being generally accepted by the scientific community as indisputable, the Theory of Evolution is still considered controversial by the public. There is a general belief that evolution is in direct contradiction to religious belief. Some believe that science and religion are incompatible. Many choose to ignore science and rely only on the truth provided by religious revelation. The apparent conflict of these two world views is not easily resolved; in fact, true acceptance of either generally means denouncing the other or watering it down so that they are compatible.

The underlying conflict is between understanding through reason versus truth provided by revelation. Reason would suggest that relying on divine revelation as a source of knowledge and truth is a fallacy.

How can a person distinguish what he or she is willing to call a miracle from a mystery? Just because something cannot be explained by the limited understanding of humankind does not mean it was caused by divine intervention. Religious individuals tend to credit supernatural forces for anything they do no understand (or choose not to). Calling something an act of god has become a way of categorizing by exclusion—they do not have an explanation so they call it divine action.

For instance, it is unreasonable to state that the undiscovered “gaps in the evolutionary record” “can’t be explained without God.” (259) It is folly to simply say that something you do not know must be god’s work. Likewise, the idea that “our experience also tells us that a complex code such as that found in the DNA molecule could only come thorough intelligence” is a shallow argument which could only persuade those who have very little knowledge of the actual workings of nature and DNA. (261)

Above all of my beliefs, I believe in a logical approach to the world. I do not accept the ideas that require a blind faith in trusting divine will. “It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention; it is only the application of them that is human. Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them.” (Paine, The Age of Reason)