Darwin's Origin of Species caused a sensation on its publication in 1859. The idea that living things gradually evolve through natural selection shocked Victorian society. It called into question the previously unshakeable belief in a Creator. Theologian Ted Peters and molecular biologist Martinez Hewlett write from a genuine concern about the confusion surrounding evolution and religion and from a fear that young Christians might be put off scientific careers.

The book outlines the spectrum of views – scientific creationism, theistic evolution in the centre ground, and atheistic materialism. The authors believe God built into the Big Bang the possibility of evolution from inanimate matter to life and eventually to conscious life. Unfortunately, there are exaggerations (eg. 'transitional fossils are discovered almost daily') as well as a tendency to attribute all medical successes to the neo- Darwinian paradigm. None of the outstanding biomedical discoveries of the past century depended on guidance from neo-Darwinian evolution. Nevertheless, this book provides a useful synopsis of the various views in the 'Evolution Wars'.