OK, I'll bite.
First I'll say, I'm not very spteful of other people's beliefs, I have a core set of beliefs that revolve around tolerance of other people's viewpoints about religion. I believe that some things can never be known, in this life, whether there is a surpreme being or not, or if there even is an afterlife. I generally don't try to make anyone agree with my point of view, because I respect their point of view, and don't wish to tear anyone down because of it, when it comes to religion/philosophy.
I do have a major problem with the whole creationism vs. evolution argument. The people who argue which one is right, are ignoring fundamental differences. Creationism relys on faith for it's evidence, while Evolution relys on observed phenomena.
Apparently Creationism can use the Bible as a source that evolution cannot be correct and intelligent design is the way to go. But Evolution cannot hold up because of a few holes in the theory. Creationists use quote from the Bible as given facts, while evolutionists use observed phenomena to base their conclusions on. Apparently, the earlier you write something down, the more true it is, because Darwin wrote a bunch of stuff down, but scientists don't take it as 100% fact so they do other tests to verify or throw out certain aspects. But since Moses said that God opened flood gates and it rained that is fact, even though we know there are no such gates in the sky. (I'm not a Bible scholar so please don't jump all over me if the Bible uses a different word than "flood gates" you get my drift) :D
Another misconception is that evolution is a guess, a theory. Well the scientific idea of a theory is much more rigorous to attain than just guessing. Most people do not understand what theory means so they write it off as a guess. That's not completely true.
<a href='http://www.answers.com/theory&r=67' target='_blank'>Click for definition</a>
Most people think 6. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture. is what a theory is, but a scientific theory is more like<a href='http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/scientific_theory' target='_blank'>this</a>. nice read if you don't understand theory.
Tangent: As a computer engineer, I have had the opportunity to use genetic algorithms. These are the programs that use prinicples of evolution to accomplish a task. Mine were very simple and yet very complicated. There are many factors that go into the programs and it is difficult to see how the program will react. But through enough iterations many programs will be quite successful to acheive their goal, while others will fail, just like real evolution. As for a piece of software getting up off a creen and becoming an iPod, All I'll say is, not yet. There have been programs written to use genetic algorithms for VLSI design (designing computer chips) and they have show some success. The problem with genetic algorithms is that they take a lot of time (just like real evolution), and many of the results are nothing more than optimized versions of what is already out there, so you don't hear about it a lot. It's just not that exciting.
Finally, evolution never makes any claims about why evolution occured. For that you need religion. Evolution does not say there is no God, or that God is a robot or some other absurd thing. In just the same way, religion should not try to explain how things worked. From what I can tell most people say that God works in mysterious ways. God may take you wife or parents from you, many religious figures will say that it is in God's plan. they do not attempt to explain what that plan is, they just try to except that plan and try to explain why. Perhaps the death leads to better opportunities for the living, finding a new love or a religious lifestyle. Science can try to tell us how that person died, but not why. So why can't evolution and creation co-exist. God may have created the heavens and the earth, but he did it through evolution.
I realize that I cannot change most peoples opinions about these issues, and you probably won't be able to change mine. But I hope you at least had a good read, and maybe understand the differences a little better.
