I was discussing this with demshateGod. I said men wrote the Bible, he (or she) said men penned the Bible. Ok, let's take it as penned.
When creation was described to the man who penned it, was God going to get into particle physics, the Big Bang (Let there be light!), the techniques he used to create grass and herbs yielding seed, then creatures of the water, then birds, and so on in biological terminology ?
No, God would have described it in an intelligible manner. Why communicate it in a way that could not be understood ?
Why would God use evolution ? Why did God create gravity ? Or electromagnetic radiation ?
I would say because it's a natural part of His creation, following from the natural laws He established.
Evolution is by it's own descriptions materialistic and without the need to refer to any creator god at all.
That's because evolution attempts to explain what happened, not who did it, or how, or why. Evolution in no way precludes God - it can't.
Regarding man as fallen - man had no knowledge of good or evil originally. Thus it was impossible for man to sin - except in one way. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they disobeyed God - the original sin. That was the "fall".
Evolution doesn't talk about sin - it talks about biologically successful organisms. It doesn't say we're "perfected" or even "advanced", it says we're biologically successful.
...if evolutionary theory has an explanation for the existence of all things including man and, moreover, says it can explain all characteristics of man's makeup, conscience, religious feelings, altruism, morality, on and on.
It doesn't have an explanation for the existence of all things. It purports to tell us what happened in earth's history. Not who, or how or why. As to all the characteristics of man's makeup, I've never heard any evolutionary theory explaining all that - or even attempting to.
Why do you try to put God in the theory of evolution?
Because God could have done it that way, building His creation so as to follow His laws.
A perfect example of this is DNA. The Bible says nothing about DNA, it says man is made from dust and describes that creation event as unique from animals. I've only met a couple of literalists who would say that DNA is a myth and that man is really a unique, silicon based life form. Most, even the 6 day creationists, will give on that point that it was simply an analogous description of something that couldn't even be described in the simple language of the day. The same with the comment about God making man in His image. Again, few would argue that God is a bipedal, carbon based life-form who breathes and eats.
“That's because evolution attempts to explain what happened, not who did it, or how, or why. Evolution in no way precludes God - it can't.”
Evolution cannot explain the what except by a narrative story and interpretation, evolution attempts to explain the how with with mutation, natural selection, etc. but evolution is materialistic because by definition of its workings there is no who or why.
“As to all the characteristics of man's makeup, I've never heard any evolutionary theory explaining all that - or even attempting to.”
Perhaps you might refer to Darwin's ‘Origin’ as he attempts to explain some of those very things.
If you read Genesis in a bit more detail, you will see that the big bang is categorically excluded. The created universe was at first cold and deep, and light came later on. It was an orderly expansion of time and space, not a bang at all.