Religion, Evolution, and the Ascent of man

It seems everywhere I go, this debate of creation vs. Evolution has been raging(ok, maybe I do tend to visit religious and political forums more than most). I, myself, am a dedicated follower of Christianity but Paleon-Anthropology, the study of human evolution and development has been a lifelong scientific interest of mine. Some may wonder if this causes a inner debate with one half of me wanting to believe in creation and the other wanting to believe in scientific evolution, but this is not the case.

There are also many like me who are dedicated religiously but also believe in scientific research. The majority of Christians now are not Young Earth Creationists(YEC) but rather favor a theory of "divine intervention" rather than take the first part of Genesis literally. If you live in the modern world, it is impossible to not live under a rock and still ignore the advances in radio-carbon dating and the fossil evidence of the evolution of man.

I have read many books and artilces on the subject and some of my favorite are old books like "African Genesis" and more recently, the Scientific American article "becoming human" which deals with homonoid evolution all the way from early great apes to man.

The most interesting article within that issue(and has since then been repeated on times in other articles and discovery channel shows) is that the one thing that gave us the ultimate advantage over other hominoids and let us conquer the globe was not that we were physically stronger or intellectually more intellegent than Neandrathals(although there is some evidence that in a warmer climate our atonomy is better suited than theirs), it was because we had the advent of symbolic thought sometime around 40,000-50,000 years ago that finally allowed us to rid ourselves of the competition. There is evidence that up until then we co-existed peacefully with Neandrathals but quickly eradicated them after this advent took place.

Symbolic thought is basically the ability to percieve more than the here and now. Along with this advent came things like ceremonial burial and the first religions. This advent allowed us to acknowledge the concept of God or Gods and to think that there may be life after Death. Ironically the evolution in our minds of the concept of God(s) was the one thing that let us spread out over the Globe and be so successful. If you believe in the theory of "Divine intervention" instead of the literal first part of Genesis, this sounds like a perfect plan that only God could pull off.