People whom I presume are honest and well-meaning are teaching kids young earth creationism in charter, parochial, and home schools. Folks with no scientific training in related fields write books blasting evolutionary theory and equating it with atheism. Their fear is that questioning the strictly literal reading of the creation stories in the Bible will lead to concluding that the Bible is untrustworthy.
The fact that there are two creation stories in Genesis that differ in detail ought to alert us to the reality that they are not to be taken literally. The fact that Genesis depicts a cosmos with a hard see-through dome sky with waters above it, and a flat earth sitting on pillars rising out of waters below it ought to tell us it isn’t meant literally. God, through Genesis is speaking in language ancient Jews would understand. God does so in such a way as to point out the fundamental nature of humans, God’s desire for intimate fellowship with us, how we got off track, and the grand arc of God’s rescue project that will (eventually) remove all sin and evil.
Science is self-correcting. Something is observed. A problem or question is posed. Hypotheses are developed. Experiments are designed to test the hypotheses. Many hypotheses are rejected because the evidence doesn’t support them. A hypothesis that the evidence supports becomes a conclusion. Conclusions are repeatedly tested and looked at from various angles. The data are made public so that multiple scientists can test and retest. As new evidence emerges, some conclusions are found to be false. Some are found to need adjusting. And some are affirmed.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists hypothesized based on initial evidence, that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted by people who were sick with the disease. As a result, public health officials said there was no need for most people to wear masks. They were concerned that there might not be enough masks for the healthcare workers who really needed them. New evidence came in indicating that coronavirus is spread by asymptomatic people and is highly contagious. Adjusting to the new evidence, we were urged and mandated to wear masks to protect ourselves and others. People who did not understand how science works concluded that the experts didn’t know what they were talking about. In reality, science was doing its job. The hypothesis of transmission was revised. Wise people change their minds in the face of new evidence.
Very occasionally, massive evidence across various scientific disciplines independently converges and arrives at the same conclusion. When that happens, we have a scientific theory. In common vernacular, “theory” means a guess or a hunch. Scientists use the term theory to mean the opposite. In science, a theory is an explanation of something in the natural world that is substantiated across all related fields of study. Theories that are well tested and substantiated by more and more evidence become accepted as fact. The theory of gravity can be substantiated by biology, physics, and mathematics. It explains why oranges fall off trees and why astronauts float in space.
Evolution, the gradual development of life over eons of time by natural selection, is a scientific theory based on massive amounts of validated evidence from genetics, biology, geology, paleontology, comparative anatomy, biogeography, embryology, molecular biology, and other fields of study. The idea was initially proposed by Darwin. His basic concepts have been confirmed repeatedly by millions of experiments and observations across numerous disciplines. Every objection from creationists has been answered. If evolution is not true, then God purposely designed the universe so that everywhere openminded people look evolutionary theory is substantiated. That would make God deceitful. God created all that is. God uses the process of evolution to do so.
But, doesn’t evolution contradict the Bible? No. There’s no problem with the Bible, only with how we interpret the Bible. If we read the Bible without taking into account the context, audience, and the way original authors and audiences viewed the cosmos, we will miss-read it. If we try to turn the Bible into a scientific textbook, we will produce a generation of very ignorant people incapable of thinking logically. Either that, or those same young people will go to college, take an intro to Biology course, conclude that the Bible is nonsense, and jettison their faith.
People who read the Bible with the wooden literalism of a small child concluded the earth was flat and at the center of the universe. People who do so today, reject evolution along with the supporting evidence across multiple fields of study, and imagine a sudden creation about 6,000 years ago.
When Genesis is studied in context, it’s message is far more profound than simply an explanation as to how we came to be here. Deep spiritual truths about the nature of humans and the nature of God are revealed. We discover that we are created with freewill, the ability to connect with the divine, the capacity to love and be loved. We learn that we are called to steward God’s creation. We hear an invitation to join God in the great divine rescue of the entire cosmos.
Try this on for size: https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Normal-People-Controversial-Misunderstood/dp/1689016841/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Genesis+for+normal+people&qid=1569246963&s=books&sr=1-4
And this: https://www.amazon.com/Language-God-Scientist-Presents-Evidence/dp/1416542744
The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor 
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