Who's Who in the Science and Religion Debate

     Francisco Ayala. Geneticist, University of California at Irvine; past president, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ayala originally studied for the Catholic priesthood, and remains a practicing Catholic; he is also one of the leading contemporary evolutionary biologists. Ayala thinks that much of the science illiteracy in the United States traces to the fact high school and college science instructors give students the false impression that science equates to atheism, putting them off from the subject. He also says that "the acceptance of evolutionary theory, which is extremely well established by evidence, is essential to the credibility of religious belief."