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Originally Posted by C_Rush

I really find the whole debate tedious and ridiculous, quite frankly. Simply put, people will believe what they believe.

Sure they will, the point isn't about what things people will believe, it's about what is taught in schools.

Personally, I am a Christian and am proud of that fact. I believe God created the universe and set in place the mechanisms needed for species to adapt to their given environments and that those who are successful will survive and those who aren't die out. I have no problem reconciling a creationist faith with evolutionary fact.

Most Christians are in the same boat as you, and that's not really the issue.. the issue is the small but vocal group that believes in a 6000 year old earth and will lie, cheat, do whatever it takes to get their idea into the science classroom. No one says they can't believe in a 6000 year old earth, but that's not science.

The only problem I encounter is when evolutionists state a theory for the origins of the universe as fact that cannot be tested or proven anymore than creationism can.

First, what's an evolutionist? Second, evolution is about descent with modification, how does that address anything about the origin of the universe?? The problem I see is you lumping a whole bunch of different things together and then attacking them as if they are related when they are not.

Explaining the origin of the universe as resulting from a hypothetical explosion of super dense matter (what existed before - where did this matter come from?) and subsequent billions of years of random chance is not any more viable than belief in a Creator who set it all in motion - just IMO, of course.

Again you're attacking a straw man, likely simply because you don't really understand what the science actually says. And that's fine, I think that's a problem of the education system and science in general communicating to the public.

Big Bang theory doesn't say anything about the origin of the universe. It simply states that far in the past the universe was smaller and denser, and this is evidenced by a huge amount of evidence. If you run the math backwards though you eventually get infinities and singularities, which don't mean anything in real terms, so the Big Bang doesn't claim to say how the universe came into being.

There are lots of ideas and hypothesis about how it started, but at this point science doesn't really know how it started.

EDIT: And the part about random chance isn't correct either.. cosmological evolution (stars, planets etc) and biological evolution are not random.

But should it be taught in classrooms? No. Science class is for science, period. If the prevailing scientific thought places evolution at the forefront, that is what should be taught to students. If parents want their kids learning about creationism, take them to church, homeschool them and discuss whatever questions they have. But do not force it onto students who do not belive the same religious tenets you do - same as why we no longer have prayer in public schools.

Agreed.