As you guys point out, there's no reason god couldn't have chosen evolution as his means of managing life-forms and the biological world, just like he chose Newton's Laws to manage planetary orbits.

The problem for religionists is that the time-scales required by evolution are incompatible with the Book of Genesis. Since fundamentalist Christianity relies on the divinely-inspired infallibility of scripture for its only proof, even the slightest contradiction to its literal truth threatens the whole structure.

Fundamentalism has painted itself into a corner. The proof of god is in scripture, and scripture must be true because god wrote it. And if god wrote it it must be literally true, every last syllable.

Evolution crushes that meme. That's why they hate it. Fundamentalism demands that doubt be indistinguishable from heresy. And that attitude carries over into their political thinking as well. If you don't accept their politics, you're not just mistaken, your a traitor and an atheist.

Lets not make excuses for these people. Deep down inside they're no damn good.