The Religion of Evolution?

I've been reading Phillip E. Johnson's Darwin on Trial with a scientist's eye toward the practice of a sibling discipline. Johnson is a professor of law and as such, familiar with spotting and exposing argumentative fallacies. Numerous times he's already documented strong evidence that Darwinists are essentially assuming their conclusion in order to provide any criteria for interpreting various physical evidences that come along. In other words: classic circular reasoning.

He offers this biting summary of the state of paleontology and anthropology:

The story of human descent from apes is not merely a scientific hypothesis; it is the secular equivalent of the story of Adam and Eve, and a matter of immense cultural importance. Propagating the story requires illustrations, museum exhibits, and television reenactments. It also requires a priesthood, in the form of thousands of researchers, teachers, and artists who provide realistic and imaginative detail and carry the story out to the general public. The needs of the public and the profession ensure that confirming evidence will be found[.]

I'm only partway through the book, but already it seems clear that even the account presented in university-level courses massively understates the complexity of the issue. It may be that natural selection is at operation, but there is nothing like a mountain of fossil evidence showing a smooth record of gradual development of species throughout history.

That's not quite the dispassionate, skeptical, peer-reviewed society which my high school and university courses hailed as the conscience of science. I don't know why practicing biologists can't summon the professional pride just to say, "We don't know" when asked about a theory which is both theoretically plausible and richly physically documented, to explain the origin of humanity. There's no shame or defeat in that; it's just honest science. Shame would be allowing your personal desires to systematically distort the collection, interpretation, and presentation to the public of biological history with no disclaimer given.