William Buckland is the prototypical "Christian-finds-science" straw man of secular propaganda. He appears as a pre-incarnation of Henry Morris, wrestles with geological facts that contradict the Flood, sees the light, and finally repudiates the Flood—just another tragic zealot finding true enlightenment through "science." The false moral is clear; Christians who open their eyes convert to secularism. Like many other secular myths, that view of Buckland is absurd. The real Buckland was an elite geologist with a brilliant career, receiving accolades from society and peers. The real tragedy was not an imaginary psychological conflict between science and religion, but the long road of compromise that marked his career, and the real moral is the necessity of fidelity to Scripture.