ABSTRACT
Early in his life as a Jesuit, French paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) began to focus on two early twentieth-century religious di lemmas. The first involved a potential conflict between science and religion, specifically, how to reconcile God’s action in the world with the theory of evolution. The second concerned the potential futility of human effort. 2 The words quoted above from Teilhard’s essay, “How I Believe,” present an outline of his apologetic approach to these dilemmas.
