Since Darwin published his Origin of the Species in 1859, the debate over the origin of the world among evolutionists and creationists has degraded into a mess of uncommunicative polarization. This bitter dialogue has infiltrated, and in some ways paralyzed, one of the most profound and mysterious topics of the human race. However, not all have the view that science and religion are incompatible.

Coming from the west coast of the United States, the Adventism that I have grown up with has been of a more liberal brand, in perceptions of the Bible and the world in general. For various reasons, my idea of a very conservative Adventist with a strict literalistic view of the Bible has come to be nearly synonymous with the terms judgmental and closed-minded; this has been a stereotype that I have struggled with for much of the last few years.