Thank you everyone for answers to some of my questions.
I have lots of questions. And I have gotten better and better at asking them. I am an atheist right now, but that could change, in the light of new evidence (which is significantly different than new light - LOL!). So I have agnostic leanings. Right now all of the evidence makes me think that evolutionary theory is the best explanation of our origin. I don't believe there is a God, but I don't discount that new evidence proving His existence may be found.
It has taken me a long time to be able to ask the right questions. I started back when the JWs Creation book came out. Publicly I supported it, but privately I had many things about it bothering me. I don't have faith in its pseudo science any longer. I don't have faith in any superstitious explanations any more. Give me tangible physical evidence, please.
I have also been puzzled with something else lately. I have been playing the Sims 2 lately, which simulates DNA and heredity in the characters. It got me to thinking. Creationists claim the Creationism scientifically explains the Genesis account. So according to Genesis, animals were created before man. Okay. Assume that is true. We now know that chimpanzees and humans share 98.56% of the same genetic code. So being a software developer and a Sims 2 player, it naturally occurs to me that God, getting near to the weekend, just copied and pasted the chimps' code, then changed the 1.44% that makes us different.
Assuming that Genesis is true, we already know He uses cut and paste. So did God just take a chimp's rib and make a few changes to come up with Adam? The Bible says He used the dust of the ground, but then He turns around and uses cut and paste method to take Adam's rib, makes some minor genetic changes, and presto we have Eve. That seems like a big inconsistency to me.
And I know how offended people get when evolutionists tell them they evolved from apes. How do Creationists tell their followers that God used a chimp as his pattern to create them?
Maybe that's why God put the Adam's rib account into the Bible, but left out the part about the chimp's rib. Maybe He figured the dust of the ground would be less controversial.
Maybe that's why most Creatioists have switched to ID.
But the whole idea that God created life and evolution is just one of the scientific principles He has take over afterwards is something different. That's like me starting up my Sims game, and walking off, coming back from time to time to check on how things are going.
The chimp/human genetic code similarities would support this idea and the fossil evidence would too. I could possibly believe in that, since the origins of life itself are still somewhat cloudy scientifically.
BTW, no offense meant if you are a chimp. Some of my best friends are chimps.
Tammy