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This is the still the question I am pressing: If the ToE had never been intoduced, and all mankind believed that God created the universe a mere few millennia ago, with set species which cannot "evolve" beyond certain boundries; would we have not come to many of the technological advances we have today?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: The ToE is the result of the scientific process that, by definition, denies people the easy out of attributing any phenomenon to supernatural causes. The scientific process does not exist because it is a philosophical argument against supernatural causes, it exists for a much more pragmatic reason: it works.
For millenia people have believed and worshipped according to assorted holy books and teachings in the hope that such activities will make their lives better. But aside from a few scriptural nods towards good hygiene there is nothing at all in religion that is of practical use to the daily struggle for food-shelter-safety. While the goal of religion may be to raise us above the status of animals, the animal needs still remain and it can be argued that the level of human civilization is inversely proportional to our immediate animal wants...we are only three meals away from the jungle.
Science merely sets aside philosophy and works from a simple premise: we can learn about our environment by observing our environment and then challenging the conclusions we make. The ToE is just one of many practical results of that premise. Like other scientific theories it provides a practical framework for making predictions about what we will find as we continue to look.
The ToE did not spring fully-formed from the forehead of Darwin; it is a conclusion based on our observations of the real world that is tested again and again with each new discovery and has so far managed to remain generally sound.
In the world of belief-based-science (shudder) every theory must be weighed against not real observations, but against holy writ and the philosophers that are the self-appointed interpreters for God. If the observations don't match God then there is a problem with the observation or our interpretation...so the entire foundation of knowledge is presumed to issue from a source that can neither be seen, touched or heard. God says man was made in his present form 6,000 years ago, but we see an organism that has evolved from other organisms over a much longer time period.
There's an old saying: Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see...that's science in a nutshell. Science is not about someone preaching the truth to us, it is about enabling all of us to go look for the truth ourselves. Science takes our flawed perception of reality and turns it into a blessing by continuously challenging us and letting nothing stand as unassailable truth merely because the majority believe it to be so.
When science and the Bible differ, science has obviously misinterpreted its data.- Henry Morris, Head of Institute for Creation Research
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