The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

Current utility and historical origin are different subjects.

The pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable.

We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.

Science simply cannot adjudicate the issue of God's possible superintendence of nature.

Science is all those things which are confirmed to such a degree that it would be unreasonable to withhold one's provisional consent.

Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life's pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways.