Theories about the origin of earth and of life

@terdon Bait-and-switch. Evolution can mean different things.

I'm sure if educators were allowed to speak freely, there would be a lot more of them asking questions.

Also. most creationist arguments fall into a classic logical fallacy. They poke holes in evolution and claim that as evidence of creationism: "Your theory is wrong, therefore mine is correct". That is completely silly. There may well be problems with the theory of evolution. At best, that would mean that the theory is wrong, not that ID or creationism is correct! Disproving A does not imply that B is true.

What must be understood in any discussion about these things is that the educational system in place in some parts of the US is giving a very wrong idea about what the theory of evolution actually claims. Things like it always produces more complexity or that it is a random process.

Yes, of course you can believe in a God and in evolution, and yes of course you can be an atheist and not accept evolution. What you can't be, is a scientist and accept ID.

Atheism has nothing to do with it. I've never understood why not believing in God is taken as a prerequisite for accepting evolution.

Assumptions aren't necessarily bad, we use them too at times, but you can't really use them as evidence.