'Move On' from Evolution-Creationism Debate, Says Young Evangelical Writer

"I was taught that if you don't interpret Genesis 1 and 2 literally, then you don't take the Bible seriously," said Evans, 29. "I held on tightly to that for a long time."

Evans says creationism -- the belief that God created the earth around 6,000 years ago in six days -- was commonplace in her town. Unable to reconcile science with her faith, Evans embraced evolution.

"I learned you don't have to choose between loving and following Jesus and believing in evolution," she said. She chronicled her personal journey in a new memoir Evolving in Monkey Town.

Evans is part of a movement of mostly Protestant writers and scientists trying to reconcile faith and science, 85 years after the trial ended. Instead of choosing sides, some prefer the middle ground of intelligent design, which claims God designed how life evolved. Tennessee gubernatorial candidates Ron Ramsey, Zach Wamp and Mike McWherter all advocate teaching intelligent design in schools.

But conservative evangelicals still reject any compromise.

Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., says the two views -- creationism and evolution -- are incompatible for evangelicals.

"No one is going to read the Bible and be able to accommodate a natural reading of the biblical text with naturalistic evolution," said Mohler.

Unlike Catholics and Orthodox Christians who rely on church teaching and tradition along with the Bible, evangelicals rely on the Bible alone as the authority for their faith.

"The entrenched hostility to evolution in American evangelism is very deep," says Karl Giberson, a physics professor at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass.

Giberson, the son of a Primitive Baptist pastor from Canada, grew up believing evolution was wrong, but his views changed once he studied physics in college. Now a member of the Church of the Nazarene and a teacher at a Christian college he's convinced evolution is true.

He is one of the co-founders of the BioLogos Forum which teaches faith can co-exist with science. He founded the organization in 2008 with Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health. Collins, 60, a one-time atheist converted to Christianity when he was 27.

The group runs a website, biologos.org, and sponsors seminars on how faith and science can work together.

"It's a place for people who understand that evolution is true to stand together," said Giberson.