Thank you for responding, another well written post.
I put it to you that not only does a mechanistic theory of evolution need replacing, but a literal Creationist belief needs replacing. Both are wrong as stand alone truths.
The fundamentalist, religious dam holding back the evidence of a gradual emergence of life and humans from primitive forms over billions of years, has well and truely burst. Humanity in general will never return to a belief that 6,000 years ago God Willed Creation into place, more or less as we see it today.
I don't believe you accept literal Creation as per Genesis in your heart of hearts. It may be the line you have to hold, but I don't think you really believe it. You're not silly. You sound educated. A person with such an education could not look at the evidence with a just and open mind and then come to the conclusion that it can be dismissed over literal Genesis Creation, impossible.
So whatever the reason for our perspectives, be it love, fear, prejudice, ignorance, we can transcend ourselves by looking at the evidence. This is the concept of being born again. It's a requirement to lay down one's contaminated self, open the mind and accept a truth you have not allowed yourself to accept.
Okay, so if evolution is evident then does that eliminate God and Creation? Not in the slightest. No system that I know of could, of itself, ever create itself and then unfold ever more complex creatures out over billions of years unless it is driven by an external Will. This is Creation and it requires an unknowable force of God.
So you are in the same bind as Nicodemus. The evidence is in for evolution and grows stronger with every passing day, if it was a lie God would have crushed it by now. How then can you reconcile God and evolution via natural order. Easily, it doesn't have to be either or, it's both. They are compatible and harmonious.
God is the Creator so there can never be a moment when Creation is not happening or God is a changeable being and therefore is not God. What act of Creation took place today? The subtle act of evolution acting upon every Created thing at this very moment.
I did read Jesus reply to Nicodemus and will comment on it later.
