^ I mostly agree with you, but the problem is that many Creationists think that humans are static in nature, that God made us the way we are and we are never going to be better than this. i.e. we are not currently evolving. If you study basic biology you'll know that even DNA in a living human is changing, right now. Genes turn off and others turn on, new mutations happen, some good, some bad.
There are different degrees of absurdity within the debate. Some discussions are reasonable, like the ones you're talking about. Religion and evolution can co-exist so long as God put it into motion, but there are people who won't even accept evolution itself. They reject all scientific rationales.
I've been to Europe and I've lived in Canada a couple of years now. When it comes to this debate, the world thinks we are a laughing stock, and I am embarrassed for our country. I have to apologize on behalf of America every time some foreigner brings up the subject. On one had we have one of the most technologically advanced nations on earth whose scientists and engineers are bar none, but we have a majority population that doesn't even believe in evolution. It's madness.
Part of the problem lies in how evolution is often framed. As a scientific theory, it is normally presented as natural events that occurred with a total absence of divine guidance.
Now, hold on a sec. I'm prefectly aware that a scientist who said "God guided evolution to produce the lifeforms that currently exist", in an official peer-reviewed thesis paper, would find himself in quite a mess with his fellow scientists. I know perfectly well that "and THEN a MIRACLE happens!" is not an acceptible corrolary to a hypothesis, or an acceptible step in solving an equation.
The problem is that evolution has been rammed up our collective arses as a divisive line between the scientific and the religious, and both sides have engaged in their share of the ramming and the dividing.
Many denominations, including Catholicism, have chosen to consider the Genesis account to be allegorical rather than literal, and to specify that while God was the author of Creation and it's guiding hand, that that doesn't mean that scientific theories of evolution are not themselves valid within their own context.... which is to say, the
scientific realm of thought, rather than the
spiritual realm of faith.
Yet, a small but loud minority of the anti-religious have chosen to denigrate this position and disparage the moderate denominations for daring to inject God into the discussion at all. This provokes a counter-reaction that widens the divisiveness of the issue.
I take a slightly different tack.
The God I believe in is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and infinite. He is not bound by the laws of physics; they are merely tools in His toolbox, to be bent or broken as He wishes. Time runs backwards, forwards or sideways at His whim. All the things that science thinks took place over 4.3 billion years could have been done by Him in six "Days" easily.... think of it as a celestical "fast forward button" if you like. So the scientists could be both right and wrong... right, in that these processes would have taken 4.3 billion years from the human POV, if they occured naturally and without intervention... wrong, in that the Divine guidance they choose not to address was actually in control, and it happened at whatever pace God willed in whatever period of time he chose to percieve as "six days".
I believe the God created the universe and everything in it. I do not know whether Genesis is intended to be taken literally, or as a symbolic/allegorical explanation that was as much as the people of that day were capable of understanding. I don't worry about it. God will fill me in on the seeming dichotomy later.
It's a divisive issue because certain people on both sides want to make it that way. It doesn't have to be though. We could choose to live and let live. I won't criticize of you if you think it all happened through natural processes, if you'll allow me to say that I believe God was in control, whatever the details might be, without sniggering up your sleeve.