Christians believe that God created the universe and all that is in it. They believe that God created science as well. So, if the fossil record -- which is, after all, God's SCIENCE -- conflicts with God's Word, then according to the right wing, we're supposed to conclude that God is apparently ... wrong.
So maybe it's time to start calling evolution what it actually is - a miracle. It's something that we don't understand and can't explain, but all the evidence we have in front of us says it's true.
Jesus walked on water. If we look to science to explain this, we can't. We just have to accept the evidence of all of the eyewitnesses who testify to what they actually saw.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Again, science can't prove that this happened - as Christians, we believe that it did. Jesus turned water into wine and changed 5 loaves and 2 fish into enough food to feed a crowd. Again, no proof - just faith.
So when the Bible says that God created the earth in 7 days, but science says that it took several billion years -- well, who am I to argue with God's science?
Which brings me back to an earlier diary I wrote -- why is the right wing's idea of God so small?
Leviticus 17:11 — “For the life of a creature is in the blood ...” (NIV).
Genesis 2:7 — “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (NKJV).
Genesis 2:2 — “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (NKJV).
I’ve never understood what part of these passages is somehow incompatible with the concept of evolution. These passages were written thousands of years ago, but it’s only been in the last century or so that we’ve understood the actual biology, chemistry, physiology, etc., of how our bodies work. So, in the religious right's view, because we didn’t understand how blood carries oxygen to the cells until recently, apparently no one should have taken it as an article of faith that God knew what He was talking about. Because we couldn’t quantitfy exactly how our lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, that whole “breath of life” thing was just so much pablum or hocus-pocus. All the people who came before us who just took the Bible at is word and happily lived their lives trusting that what He says is so, without any actual “proof”, were apparently all just idiots or fools.