I was the best science teacher most of them ever had, and I'll get a couple who are adults now to tell you that if you don't believe it- but then I suppose it would not alter your opinions in the slightest.
As for me being "hostile to inquiry", for the love of reason, can't you see the rank hypocrisy in your post? It is you that expresses the most virulent hostility to me for making some inconvienient inquiries such as "gee, isn't X another possible answer for the observed facts?". You are precisley what you accuse me of. The blindness of an otherwise intelligent man sends a literal chill down my spine.
As for your arguement that a lot of improbalble things can happen in 4.5 billion years I reply 1) your numbers are wrong as all of the improbable things we are talking about occured in the last 543 million years since the Cambrian explosion and 2) Even 4.5 billion years is not enough time to make a huge series of extremely improbable events occuring by natural means a reasonable position. We must compare the number and likely hood of the events to the time allowed.
The numbers are not wrong. You are failing to comprehend the geometric nature of the calculation.
The "Cambrian explosion" was millions of years and the Precambrian was longer than the Cambrian. Your students may think they were well instructed, but most of us who also have taught biology are beginning to have our doubts about your claims.