In 2013 Michigan, Rachel Whitaker has been raised as an evangelical Christian by her loving parents, and is celebrating a going-away party with her friends and family, as she is all set to go to college. However, after she begins to be influenced by her biology professor, Dr. Kaman, who is an atheist, she begins to question her own Christian faith, and in particular the biblical story in Genesis about creationism. Dr. Kaman teaches his students the scientifically proven theory of evolution, rather than the biblical concept of creationism, and his charisma, intelligence, and light-hearted approach to the topic of evolution makes him popular with the students.
Dr. Kaman teaches that all complex life forms evolved from simpler life forms over millions of years, and that the Biblical theory of creationism is not a probable alternative. Rachel's father Stephen is concerned by the change in his daughter's personality and beliefs, and goes to confront the arrogant professor in his office, finding himself challenged to a debate on religion much to the embarrassment of his daughter. As he prepares, Stephen is approached by a sympathetic student, Evan, who tells him to go see a former biology professor named Professor Portland, who was fired several years ago at Kaman's behest for teaching creationism to his students and for arguing to them that the theory of evolution was untrue and made-up by man. Professor Portland initially refuses efforts to "get him back in the game" and angrily tells Stephen to go away and not bother him anymore.
Rachel is then seen in the campus library studying books about evolution, when another student approaches her and tells her that her dad is an idiot for attempting to debunk Dr. Kaman and for rejecting the theory of evolution. Evan shows up, insults the student, and claims to prove that evolution is not possible because the student's parents and grandparents do not look like apes. Evan tells the student all humans only "evolved" from other humans, and that the only common ancestors all humans share are Adam and Eve. The student walks away dumbfounded and confused by Evan's argument. Rachel lashes out at Evan, and claims she embarrassed him. He tells her "I wasn't defending you," claiming that he instead was defending Jesus, God, and Christianity instead of her, and that he just coincidentally showed up right then.
Evan moves to a different area of the school library, and he overhears two other students talking badly about Rachel. Evan listens in to their conversation and realizes that Rachel's newfound romantic interest, Tyler, is planning to take advantage of her by inviting her to a Saturday night party just so her can get her drunk and have sex with her. Evan calls Rachel on her phone but she refuses to talk to him after he embarrassed her in the library earlier, so Evan shows up to her dorm. He accuses Rachel of rejecting Christianity, being brainwashed, and disrespecting God. Rachel gets even angrier at him and storms off. Before she goes back into her dorm room, Evan shouts out that Tyler is using her, and that he is only dating her because he wants to have sex and is attempting to steal her virginity and push her further away from God. Rachel is shocked by this and thanks Evan for alerting her about it.
Rachel goes to see Tyler and dumps him. Tyler confronts his friends, pushes them hard, and yells at them for ruining his chances of having sex with Rachel. His friends say that Rachel was a lost cause anyway because she was way too religious and scrupulous for him, and that they did him a favor by getting Rachel to dump him. Tyler then implies that it is actually all Evan's fault.
During the night of the debate, Dr. Kaman debates Rachel's father Stephen, and makes all sorts of arguments against creationism, religion, and the afterlife. Dr. Kaman seems to be winning the debate against Stephen, who argues that God is necessary for the world and man to have been created and that without religion that would mean that there would be no morals or purpose in life, and offers the Bible as viable proof of this. Just when Dr. Kaman is about to finish off Rachel's father, Professor Portland comes onto the stage, revealed to be sitting in the audience, and says that everything Dr. Kaman said is wrong. Professor Portland takes over for Stephen's father to debate Dr. Kaman, argues that life cannot come from non-life, that the Bible is God's word, that evolution is not actually scientifically proven, and that Earth is not billions of years old or even millions of years old. He then personally tells Dr. Kaman that he hated him for years after he got him fired from the university, but that he realizes now that he was wrong to hate Dr. Kaman and that hating solves nothing. He says that biology classes should teach both evolution and creationism and let the students decide for themselves which one to believe. Professor Portland then approaches Dr. Kaman on stage and asks for forgiveness, and he tries to convert him to Christianity. Dr. Kaman has no words to respond to this, and he concedes the debate. The audience claps for Professor Portland.
Later, Evan and Rachel are seen in the dorm together. Evan asks Rachel to be his girlfriend and Rachel agrees. Evan takes Rachel to a nature preserve, and claims that it is a very special place for him. Rachel asks why, and Evan explains inadvertently that he was there years ago when he met Rachel. Rachel does not know what he is talking about but he reveals that he stole a coin from a girl there a long time ago and then felt bad about it and became a Christian. This happened to Rachel and she is that girl, and Evan found out about this when he was talking to Rachel's father earlier in the movie. Rachel realizes that Evan was the one who took the coin, and she forgives him for stealing it. Rachel hugs Evan, and the movie ends.
The Dove Foundation gave the film a rating of five out of five dove seals, writing that "This quality movie features solid acting including two veterans, Harry Anderson and Clarence Gilyard."[11]
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