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faith to believe (the fourth category) found many adherents among readers, such as these: “There are so many vast chasms that evolutionists paint over with broad strokes, they act as if their faith is fact as often as a creationist.” Or: “On my view, a key part of being a rational skeptic is consistent dedication to the standards and methods of critical thinking and logic. In his zeal to defend his faith in evolutionary theory, Dr. Shermer violates those standards.” My favorite letter in this class echoed a standard refrain we hear often at Skeptic magazine about inadequate or misplaced skepticism (with a cc list that included “Pres. George W. Bush, V.P. Dick Cheney, and The Members of The US Congress, American Academy of Science; Dr. Dean Edell, America’s Doctor; Dr. Laura, America’s Jewish Mother”!): “I applaud your SKEPTICISM when it comes to Creationism and Astrology and ‘Psychic Phenomena’; but how can you be so THICK HEADED when it comes to the GLARING WEAKNESSES of Darwinian Evolution??? Honestly, you come across as both a ‘brain-washed apologist’ and a ‘High School Cheerleader’ for Darwinian Evolution.” Charles Darwin, he’s our man. If he can’t do it no one can.

The penultimate taxon was that Intelligent Design creationism must be true because life is simply too complex to be explained by evolution. For example: “ID theorists also see a variety of factors, constants, and relationships in the construction of the universe which are so keenly well-adjusted to the existence of matter and life that they find it impossible to deny the implication of intelligent purpose in those factors. Materialists see the same thing and wave their hands vaguely and mutter mystical phrases about ‘Anthropic Principles.’ What the materialist calls the anthropic principle, the IDer calls the Designer.”

Intriguingly, the greatest number of responses fell into a noncommittal position where readers expounded on the relationship of science and religion, often presenting their own theories of evolution and creation as alternatives to the models under discussion. For example: “Evolution is not a theory. It is an analytic approach. There are three elements of science: operation, observation, and model. An observation is the result of applying an operation, and a model is chosen for its utility in explaining, predicting, and controlling observations, balanced against the cost of using it.” And: “There is nothing that scientists have ever discovered, or could ever discover, that can prove or disprove the existence of God. The Bible is a tool for the illumination of the heart, not the revelation of observable facts. Thus there is no conflict between the Bible and science—there is even an amazing synergy between the two—when each is kept in its proper place.”

It has been my experience that correspondents in this final classification, like questioners in the Q & A sessions of lectures I present at colleges and universities, are less interested in my opinion and more intent on launching their own ideas into the cultural ether. With no subject is this more apparent than for evolution; it is here we face the ultimate question of genesis and exodus: where did we come from and where are we going?

FAITH, RELIGION, AND THE SOUL: WHY RELIGION MATTERS

Since the initial publication of How We Believe, books on religion, particularly on the relationship of science and religion and on the origin and purpose of religion, have tumbled off the presses in droves. There is money to be made in the religion publishing business, not the least of which is due to the fact that there are so many believers. Oxford University Press’s newly released second edition of its World Christian Encyclopedia reports that of the earth’s 6.1 billion humans fully 5.1 billion of them, or 84 percent, declare themselves believers who belong to some form of organized religion. Christians dominate at just a shade under two billion adherents (Catholics count for half of those), with Muslims at 1.1 billion, Hindus at 811 million. Buddhists at 359 million, and ethnoreligionists (animists