Calminian said:
The Big Bang is a theory about how thing may have come about naturally. The Genesis account is about how thing came about miraculously (supernaturally). Scientific methods cannot investigate supernatural events, especially in the distent past.
Science explains the how, God explains the why. The creation story as described in Geneis 1 makes absolutely no sense with regards to natural processes. It's all backwards. Yes, God could have done it that way, but I don't believe he did. We are made in God's image, so God must have at least some similarities in logic to humans. Why would he create the world in an out-of-order process? The ancient Jews, more than likely, would not be able to understand the concepts of heliocentrism, the big bang, and the large distances/amounts of time that are involved with outer space. That's why the creation story was recorded as it was.
Of course. God spread creation out over six days for a reason. He created a model for our work week.
That is indeed one of the main reasons why the Genesis creation account is set up like it is. The days, which I believe to be symbolic units of time, are set up in a way so that we may have a sabbath.
Anyway, as for the actual topic at hand: There are plenty of people out there who would support your beliefs. I support some of your beliefs and disagree with others, but that's another matter. It sounds like you have the quite common problem of being exposed for a long period of time to an environment that doesn't agree with your beliefs. And instead of simply agreeing to disagree or something like that, they continually either shoved them down your throat or punished you in some way. Now, obviously a conservative evangelical Christian school will probably preach conservative evangelical doctrines. But since you had no way to get out of that (or so it seems), it has slightly skewered your perceptions of what Christianity is and who Christians are.
I would also not dismiss all stories of the Old Testament as pure allegory, because it's fairly obvious that some of them aren't. I mean, it is a recorded history of the Jewish people. Under the Christian belief system, it is assumed that God can do miracles, of course. So, some of the things, such as the parting of the Red Sea, or the Jews wandering the desert for fourty days and still managing to live could quite possibly be true. I, for example, obviously do not believe the universe was created in six literal days. I believe it to be created 13.5 billion years ago in the way science describes. However, I also believe in monogenism, or that all humans alive today are descended from a single person. While there are some problems with the theory (as there are with most), it gives possible scientific evidence to the possible existance of an Adam and Eve. The theory states that all of humanity that's living today is descended from a single woman named Mitochondrial Eve. The person who this Mitochondrial Eve would've mated with would have been Adam. Contrary to what some people seem to think, it is possible to integrate Christianity and science.
Given your beliefs, you should probably check out a more liberal church. The Methodist Church is probably a good bet. They're fairly accepting and have a wide range of theological beliefs within their denomination.
