Hello @T_aquaticus ,
You asked what I think is the most important question regarding the whole evolution and Christianity dogfight:
And in a nutshell, I think the answer is that the truth of evolution forces us (doctrinally conservative Christians) to recognize that some of our most foundational doctrines, which we have long understood to be settled and essential for understanding the relationship between God and humanity, cannot be supported in the ways we have long thought were obvious. The concerns over heliocentrism/egocentrism brought to light important cultural differences between the ANE and the later church leaders, who were hammering out doctrines that we still hold, and taught us (or should have) to handle the Bible more carefully. But it didn’t really shake foundational doctrines dealing with sin, judgement, salvation, redemption, etc… Evolution appears to, may actually, do that. Then the question quickly becomes broader: if these foundational doctrines are questionable, does this mean they are unsupportable? If they are unsupportable, does Christianity, true or not, serve any purpose at all?
I looked around for a tolerable article that was already written (because I don’t have time to do the research and writing) that provides an overview of the big issues, and I found this one. Here’s the abstract:
Seven challenges are identified and described in the debate, namely, regarding a recognition of deep (geological) time (challenging the historicity of the biblical creation narratives), understanding the role of chance in natural selection (posing questions about the nature of divine action, e.g., providence), human descent (challenging presumed human distinctiveness), a recognition of natural suffering (challenging the benevolence of the Creator), identifying the evolutionary roots of evil (challenging Christian views on the fall of humanity), a recognition of natural disselection (challenging notions of divine election) and, finally, evolutionary explanations of the emergence of morality and of religion (reiterating the challenge of atheism). It is argued that with each of these challenges, some of the underlying problems were provisionally resolved, only to reappear later in an even more challenging form.
Understanding that these are the issues that many Christians perceive to be at stake can help provide a lens to see what is going on in so many discussions here in this Forum, and explain the level of stress that accompanies them. Many feel an underlying fear that if evolution really is true, then everything they have always understood to be true is not.