Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Stanley Zantarski
This is not what concerns most people. How many people are suffering from anxiety, depression, anger, fear, or marital problems because of the creationism vs evolution discussion? Most people are intelligent enough and history has proven enough fantastic things as real e.g. microscopic life, atomic energy, flight, et cetera that we simply are comfortable with not knowing exactly how it all came about. God created science. God created religion, that is, the conditions of spiritual service and morality. Same author. This argument is beneath the dignity of the Christian Church.
Jennifer Rothnie
While not a salvation issue, Creation vs. evolution is a very important discussion for the church.
The very first line of the Bible is "In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". The Jews even called the book "B'reshith" - 'In the Beginning". This is the first claim of scripture. It assumes the existence of God, and gives a literal claim that God created everything in the beginning. Why is this claim so important? It sets up the even greater claim in John 1:1-4 that "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was God...through Him all things were made." Just as the first thing God created was light, we then discover that the physical light was merely a type, reflecting the true "light of all mankind". If the claim that God created the universe, created light, that He was from the beginning (etc..) was all simply a parable or story and not literally true, then there is no reason to have faith that Jesus is literally true and not just a spiritual feel-good story as many claim.
https://ebible.com/questions/3587-did-god-literally-create-the-earth-in-six-24-hour-days#answer-14608
Faith is based on what is credible/trustworthy despite having no firsthand evidence. Why would God ask us to have faith, if He did not really start with truth in His testimony about the light of mankind?
As such, the creation/evolution debate has great influence on how credible we believe God is, and hence can greatly influence our faith in Christ.