Confession of a Religious Darwinist

Does the title sould contradictory? I don't think so, and I hope to explain why...

In an earlier article (Can God Exist within Science?) I described two of the great scientific theories of the 20th Century, and how they leave room for God to still exist and exert influence on the Universe. I would like to now deal with the third leg of the altar of science today, and that is the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, as described in the book The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.

So, I'll deal with a few issues here:
1) How can the age of the Earth, as measured by geologists and the time required for evolution be squared with the description of Creation contained in Genesis?

The classic way to get around this one is to say that the length of the "day" was not determined unil later in Creation, but I don't think this stretch is necessary.

My opinion is that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, but does not, and was not intended by God to be, the literal truth. Abraham and Moses could not have ever understood the timeframes represented by the some 15 billion years that have passed since the Universe came into existence. God revealed to them that He had created the Universe in a way they could understand, not the literal truth. By the same token, I believe that many great minds over the centuries like Newton, Einstein, Heizenberg, Fermi, and even Darwin came to the revelation of their truths through Divine Inspiration, and God revealed additional truth to mankind when we were ready to understand it.

2) How could Evolution have produced such complex life?

One attempt many religious people have made to discredit Evolution is the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, saying that Evolution cannot be true because it is insufficient to describe the complexity of life on Earth.

Again, I think that they are missing an opportunity to fit into the holes in Evolution and exploit them, and rather attacking a theory with much evidence backing it directly.

The Origin of Species, despite its title, describes only how life forms evolve from other life forms. It does not describe how life itself started, or how the first lifeforms came to be on the Earth.

One scientific explanation, abiogenesis (life from lifelessness) has never been able to be experimentally duplicated, and has the same amount of scientific evidence behind it as Creation does.

Evolution & Religion Together
Evolution is not opposed to religion. In reality, the theory of abiogenesis is the antethisis of Creation, not evolution. It is my belief that God set the first life forth on Earth, in the full knowledge that thanks to His Law of Natural Selection, that life would multiply, evolve, and eventually give rise to intelligent creatures who would wonder about His creation.

Now here's the kicker: Scientists cannot disagree with me, as their theory of creation has the same amount of evidence, and is as much a testament of faith as Genesis is.