Reconciling Evolution and Creationism: Short version

So last night we all went to the Burke Lecture on "Evolution and Divine Providence: Are They Compatible?"

The key (again) seems to be a harmonious co-existence and melding of the concepts. The trouble always seems to be a certain extremism for either side. As a Catholic, I've never felt that if I purported one, then I would have to deny the other. That's where all this trouble began, people think they only have one slot for one explanation.

The lecturer was John F. Haught, 'a distinguished research professor from the Department of Theology, Georgetown University.' He divided the explanations for universe into three layers. First, there's the scientific -Darwinist (not necessarily materialist) explanation. Second, there is the creationist/divine providence explanation. Science tells us that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. The image Haught used was that if you divide these years into 30 volumes of books humans are on the last page of the 30th volume. Deep time/divine patience can be put together.
The third is that these two thought processes are reconciled in divine patience, God's wish to foster a world in His own image, yet separate from his infinite nature (in the sense that the world is finite, and God is infinite). Our evolution is our attempt to reconcile our finite universe with the infinite universe of God.

A scientific explanation of life does not remove the value, lesson, and truth of the fall of Adam or the redemption by Christ Jesus. Sin, including the original sin, is the going against the grain of evolution. Evolution is love. People like to say that we should separate ourselves, and that way we will grow, which is wrong. We need to love together and build community and evolve. It's the humility of God to become incarnate and serve, sacrifice, and become the lowest of the low. It's just silly to "cage" God into "He can only do this, or He only belongs here, or there." We can't even fully take in the concept of the trinity. So it's arrogance to think we can out think God and that "the buck stops here" with us.

So with this, 4 things are established. We still have the scientific explanation, the divine explanation, a respect for the infinite, and a purposeful life ahead for us.

*subject to expansion/addition, gathering more notes --attempting to sum it up like this probably isn't going to do it justice [2/26 edit]