In a speech at the University of Regensburg, the pope emphasized the role of theology in correlating faith with reason. He argued that within the university it should be accepted without question that "it is still necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason." That speech created an uproar in the Muslim world--not because of the pope's contentions regarding theology, but because of his reference to a 14th-century dialogue in which a Byzantine emperor questions Islam's reliance on holy war, and implies that because spreading faith through violence is unreasonable and "not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature," Islam is both unreasonable and ungodly. In this article, the author argues that for the pope to equate theology and faith by demanding that deeply religious individuals base their faith on rationality is inappropriate and fundamentally illogical. The pope's motivation may be to produce a peaceful, more tolerant world, but history suggests that his approach simply won't work. Even scholars with years of training in theology and history have trouble combining the possible existence of divine purpose with a universe governed by natural laws.