Here are four models of how the claims of evolutionary science and intelligent design can be related:

Conflict Model

According to this position, a person of intellectual integrity cannot be both a theist (believer in God) and a Darwinist. One example of this position is that of the biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design. Dawkins believes in a universe of blind physical forces:

“The universe that we observe has precisely the properties that we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference… DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.”

Independence Model

In its statement, the National Academy of Sciences is taking a “two realms” position: no conflict between science and religion can occur if they are completely independent enterprises that differ in methods, domain, and function. Another version of the Independence Model uses Thomas Aquinas’ distinction between primary and secondary causes. According to this approach, God, as primary cause, works through the secondary causes that science investigates. These two types of causality operate at completely different levels. Hence, the scientific enterprise can be carried out on its own terms with no reference to or conflict with theology.

Dialogue Model

Acknowledging their differences, there are also similarities in science and religion. Both fields of human inquiry use conceptual models and analogies to discuss beings that cannot be directly observed (for example, God and subatomic particles). Also, dialogue emerges when science comes up against its boundaries, raising limit-questions that it cannot itself answer. For example, why is the universe orderly and intelligible? Another form of dialogue can occur when concepts from science are used as analogies for understanding God’s relation to the world (for example, information theory and quantum physics). According to this model, both scientists and theologians can engage as partners in critical reflection while respecting the integrity of each other’s fields.

Integration Model

Recently, astronomers have argued that the physical constants in the early universe appear to be fine-tuned, as if by design. For example, if the expansion rate one second after the Big Bang had been ever so slightly slower or faster, the universe would not have developed in a way that the chemical elements needed for life could have formed. Evidence like this leads some to a more systematic and extensive partnership between science and religion. As another example, a philosophical system like process philosophy can be used to interpret scientific and religious thought within a common conceptual framework.