Tricia,
You asked for the reasons that changed my mind about evolution and the big bangwell, Ill have to tell you that it hasnt been night and day one way or the other, more like a peaceful coexistence of the two.
In high school, our biology teacher spent about 10 minutes on evolution (I dont actually remember what she said) and followed it up with the statement that she didnt believe it either and that it was perfectly alright to believe in Adam and Eve. (Yes, this was a public high schoolI know, I know.) That was fine with me because I didnt believe any of that apes to men idea either! It wasnt a big deal with my family or churchit was just science saying there wasnt a God and we didnt have to listen to that.
My freshman year in college, I took Intro to Anthropology. During the first week of that class, our prof explained evolution.. Namely, that evolution says that organisms that successfully reproduce pass on their traits to the next generation. When the environment changes, organisms that already possess traits suitable for the new environment are at a greater advantage than those that do not. (The organisms already suitable could have random mutations which were previously useless and now helpful.) Therefore, the organisms with suitable traits have a greater influence on the population as a whole. Eventually, with successive environmental changes a later organism could be very different from the earliest organism.
I know that this is not even half of what the whole of evolution isIve left out genetic drift and bottlenecks and population dynamics and yadayadayada. And I know that you probably have heard this and more explanative versions before in this very forum. But I knew nothing about evolution, except that it was wrong and proved God didnt exist to some people. But this idea of change over long amounts of timethis didnt say anything about God existing or notthis didnt say that God didnt create the first organisms. And the Bible never said that what God created never changedonly that it was good in His sight. No, this idea simply made senseit was science. So it really wasnt for me the idea of creation versus evolution changed, simply that there could be creation then evolution. And while I will admit that I dont know very much about the Big Bang or other scientific ways to explain the universewhat you have been asking here is great for me tooI see no reason to say that what science has learned and is learning about the rules and the structure of the universe now and at its beginning conflict with my knowledge of God and His role in my life.
Theres no reason to think scientists are out in the world trying to overthrow faiththey are simply investigating how this natural world works. Neither are they trying to deceivethe glory is in finding the truth. Why then are there some people of faith crusading against science? While Im sure you could get plenty of answers to this question on this board, I think its because their worldview is limited and theyve assigned God a place in it and it cant be changednot even to grow. Never be afraid to change your mind, Tricia.