The scopes trial was a long time after Darwin, and that kind of highlights how recent most of this debate is.
To me it comes down to personal responsibility. If someone tried to foist a belief on me that effected no one but themselves, I would be fairly open to giving it a shot. What's the harm?
If, on the other hand, they tried to make me undertake a belief that effects the future of billions of people, based on what I have to accept as good science through faith in the credibility of those scientists, that's another story. Evolution in and of itself is a good way of thinking about the human past. I find most of it to be pretty palatable.
BUT, when those nihilistic aspects of it are used to discount the value of human life, and endanger it, then it is blind faith taken too far. The blind adherance to the beliefs of someone in a lab coat is no more useful than the blind faith in a man in a funny hat.
