It's a battle of the of the two biggies, MrG vs D12, taughtbuffet will be coming up the rear any moment. Sorry TB I'm going to spruik my way in again as well.
Creation and evolution are not in conflict. Every vibrating atom was organised by the Creative Essence, every living organism throughout the universe owes its existence, its life, to the Creator. The act of creation is taking place right now. The essence of every possible form of existence was understood in the primal moment of creation. So there was a creation event when God took some pre-existing substance or energy (because not even God can create something from nothing) and directed it to His will. Evolution then allowed the various pathways for creation to unfold and move towards higher degrees of perfection that we see today. If something is not evolving it is dead or entering a state of decomposition.
Celestial bodies evolved from a process we may never know about (the big bang is the best supposition our finite brains can conceive at this stage without resorting to a simplistic explanation) because the closer we get to the moment of creation the less natural order and the forces in nature functioned as they do today. Creation was a supernatural process, outside of nature.
To imagine mankind came into existence via Adam and then his rib is missing the point of the story completely. Adam is every human being and Eve is his soul. There is unequivocal evidence for the human story going way back beyond 6,000 years. As for the flood, it is a moral tale, not to be read as a factual description of an event. No evidence exists whatsoever for a global flood of Noachical times.
Six days of creation in Genesis is an entry point for early humans to begin to understand that their world was created, it didn't just happen or evolve without the Will and Desire of a Creator. This took place over a very long period of time, time being irrelevant to a timeless God. Everything was preordained for the purpose of bringing forth a sentient being to recognise God. Humans throughout their evolution from an earlier state were always destined to be what we are today. There is no luck in us having a big brain and an immortal soul. We are part of the animal kingdom but separated from it, and elevated above it. We did not arrive at this state by evolution only, it was preordained, evolution being only a description of the journey.
Science and religion will eventually develop a harmonious relationship. Religion must stand the analysis of reason. It must agree with scientific fact and proof so that science will sanction religion and religion fortify science. Religion will also evolve as long as mankind exists. Knowledge of God is infinite. The candle of religion flickered in caves thousands and thousands of years ago when people painted images on walls. Today we understand there is a single Divine Essence, one God. The next step is to understand we are a single human family and that all the true religions are in fact aspects of a single religion, thus conflict over religion is impossible to sanction and disrespect for any one of the true Messengers of God is a strike against them all.
