I personally think that compared to the dogma of creationism, the theory of evolution makes a lot of sense. I also think that it matters exactly diddly squat whether we believe in evolution or creation in the grand scheme of salvation. I think creationism is an unnecessary hindrance to the gospel, not so much in the sense that people refuse our faith on the basis of creationism, but in the sense that we sometimes spend so much time and energy arguing for or against creationism that we miss the whole point of gospel.

I just want to remind everyone to keep an open mind. We need to understand what Bible is for, and how it is written. It is not meant to reveal the general truth of the universe, but the specific truth of God-man relationship. It is not written by God directly, but by men who are inspired by God. So you have to accept some "limitations" of the Bible, and interpret it from its historical context.

We don't have to look far to see its "limitations". There was never a distinction between bats, which is a mammal, and birds, which is not. There was never a reference to China (unlike popular belief among us Chinese, Sinim is not China)...

I put a "" mark on limitations, because things are described exactly as they are from the point of view of the inspired writers, even if the terms they used don't quite conform to our definition. Thus, when God, in verse 16, made two great lights, the author is perfectly right in say these two great lights are the sun and the moon, even if the stars are heck of a lot bigger than the moon, and many of them bigger than the sun.

I therefore personally interpret verse 1 - heavens as sky, space, and the spiritual realm, earth as individual planet; verse 2 - "earth" as primitive chaos, "waters" as primordial soup. and so on and so forth. Although I'd argue for evolutionism from time to time, I don't plan to convince other people that I am right in my interpretations verse by verse -- it's just how I interpret these not-so-important passages.

An understanding of the nature of God, and proper love, fear and respect is much more important than petty squabbles over how He created heavens and earth.