The way I see it, BOTH sides teach their side as ‘the truth’, and NEITHER can be totally TRUE, because of intellect, and interpretation getting in the way.
As for evolution, the best counter, simply, I have heard is "why are we not in different stages with different people and animals???
I have heard the answer, SLOW MUTATIONS,etc., still just doesn’t seem to be enough changes in man for their theories to me anyway.
Christian scholars and teachers believe pretty much the earth is only 6,000 years old, or so. Based a lot on the verse “with God, one day is AS 1,000 years”, but of course, that would refer to the six day creation as Fred or someone said. That theory would suggest man has just been created for less than 1,000 years(6th day).
I DO BELIEVE scientists, when they say the earth is far more than 6,000 years of age. The first 2 verses in the Bible cover many thousands, or maybe millions of years, imo. That is called the “GAP THEORY”, also, in verse 2, the words “was void” should have been translated “became void”, according to the manuscripts of the Bible. Jeremiah
chapter 24:25-26, describes God saying "I saw the earth, and there was NO MAN. 26–The cities were broken down. Some say that was the end of the first earth age, some say future end of this age.
2 Peter 3:5-8 describes the world before and now, as two ages, and Revelation tells of an age yet to come. The FIRST AGE has no timetable, unless you believe Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 are concurrent to continuing time. Then, the 6,000 year theory has a LITTLE accuracy, BUT, that theory is contradictory if you believe the creation took 6,000 years to complete.
Sooooo much speculation, but, as skinneej has pointed out, the created universe has far too much perfection to be RANDOMLY GENERATED.
SUMMARY, takes FAR more faith to not believe creation than to believe it, therefore, ‘easy way out’ some say to believe, but TRULY believing, and vocalizing that, is certainly NOT easy either.
“The big one’s still swimming, let’s go.”