Biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden is currently making efforts to end the culture war between faith and science through her newest book Evolution and Christian Faith.

She first fell under the radar of discussions on evolution with her book Evolution’s Rainbow, her counter-manifesto to Darwinian theories on sexual selection.

Charles Darwin devised his theory of selection to explain traits such as peacock tails and antlers, which seemed to be a handicap for day-to-day survival in the wild. He discovered that such adornments evolved to provide males the ability to compete with other males when vying for the affections of females. His successors embellished upon the theory, cementing our modern view of male-female relations: a promiscuous, competitive male and picky females. Their argument stems from the fact that eggs are more difficult to produce than sperm. Thus, such theorists say, females must choose a mate carefully to ensure the best outlook.

This left little room for the idea that females might be just as competitive and promiscuous as males. It also offered no explanation for homosexuality, which many of Darwin’s heirs tossed away as a theoretically inconvenient aberration.

Roughgarden’s book, while not questioning the central idea of natural selection, challenged the aforementioned tenets. The book even inspired an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Norway called Against Nature?

The daughter of Episcopalian missionaries, she possesses a very unique perspective on the debate over evolution and intelligent design: she’s both an evolutionary biologist and a Christian.

In her newest book, Evolution and Christian Faith, Dr. Roughgarden attempts to mend the divide between scientific world and people of faith. Christians, Roughgarden says, can “rejoice in the ethical meaning behind what evolutionary biologists are finding through their research.”

In her book, she reinterprets scripture passages commonly used to oppose evolution in order to emphasize her belief that the Bible does not conflict with evolutionary biology. The book further relates Christianity and evolution by saying that all life is interconnected, as members of a faith community are connected. Roughgarden opposes the theories of creationism and intelligent design, but asserts her belief in God’s involvement in evolution.

Dr. Roughgarden discusses here her attempts to end the culture war between mainstream science and biblical faith.