Blurred Lines

I suspect that the environment of the war combined with the timing of evolutionary scientific efforts created quite a theological and existential crisis among Americans during this period. Faust points out that just as the lines between duty to God and country were blurred, so did the line between human and animal. One theological dilemma of war seemed to be the origin of human nature. The psychological tole that the war took on the soldiers represented a "significant departure from soldiers understanding of themselves as human beings and,...as Christians." Was the situation of the war, which Faust calls, "an environment in which [humanity] seemed already increasingly undifferentiated from animals" the perfect storm for religion to lose some ground on the origin and purpose of humanity while the development of the sciences and non-religious thought may have offered more comfortable grounds? And/or, did the war only demand a significant change in American Christian theologies?