Learn from the mistakes of others

I don't know if I'd join your conclusion there.

I had a very intelligent professor in college who taught evolutionary science and was also a Quaker from the northwestern US.

It was his sincere belief that evolution existed and that evolution was God's plan. Note that this was not what he taught - he taught only the scientific theory of evolution - but this was his personal belief shared with the class when asking the class to share their own beliefs (in an attempt to determine what our starting ground was on evolution, as I went to school in the deep southern US).

I think that his approach may be the one way to reconcile faith with reason for those torn between the two. In any event, it is certainly more open minded, thoughtful and nuanced than either the atheist camp (no way is there a god) or the fundamentalist camp (god will damn all you atheists to hell).

Personally, I think at best I am agnostic about both scientific principals and the existence of god. I have observed the fallibility of human reason and emotion, the limitations of knowledege and the variance of 'truth' when seen from different perspectives.

What I best know is that really I don't know anything at all. I only hope to understand a few things along the way.