Is the theory of gravity "true"?
Science doesn't concern itself with apparently unresolvable theological questions, generally. Evolution is a pretty good story that seems to explain quite a lot, and we'll probably persist in telling it until a better story comes along. What you've called cladistic theory has not been seriously on the table, aside from the occasional freak accident, even for life's origins, for a couple of years now, ever since Woese's rearrangement of the basic roots of the Tree of Life, about 3 years ago, from Ribosomal mutational distance calculations over the domain of one-celled critters. You might recall that about 15 years ago, the micro-biologists were confidently predicting the demise of the osolote cats because their numbers had shrunk down below critical reproduction mass, with the consequent catastrophic loss of genetic variety. By the way, this argument fares very poorly if you restrict your attention to asexual reproducers, who can (at least, so we at first thought) only evolve by mutation--no sex means no dominent and recessive genes to mix&match with--and probably isn't nearly as much fun.
Those who like to mull such things over, now generally subscribe to hot, weakly cohesive pre-cellular RNA communities, organized around energy-capturing enzymatic cycles (such as the citric cycle you digest your food with) gradually getting fixed into cellularity as the available energy became less available as the earth's mean temperature decreased. I can give you pointers, I think, if you are interested.
evolution is reality morphing---twisting...
putty--playdough science---"special" science!
Geez... and I thought the Bible was the "Greatest Story Ever Told?"
Isn't that why people make a lot of money writing movies and stories that use its themes? Wonder why those themes ring so true for most people... hmmm... just coincidence I guess.
Oh, I definitely want to hear this story. I want to hear how totally inert matter arranged itself into living matter. Not even Darwin dared to tell such a tall story!