"Darwin's theory of evolution is a gift to science," Francisco Ayala argues, "and to religion as well." He explains why in Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion, hailed by John F. Haught as "a crisp summary and development of positions he has long held regarding the explanatory scope and limitations of the idea of natural selection" and by Michael Zimmerman as "a clear and concise précis of the current battleground between evolution and its creationist attackers." Ayala is University Professor and the Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine; he received the National Medal of Sciences in 2002.