Personally speaking, I think that both of these concepts are not mutually exclusive, since, similar to the spirit of mankind's point, evolution can be proven by fact, whereas God cannot. However, in my opinion, I do not believe that God is merely a concept of religion, but rather an idea that we, humans, have created and shaped over the course of time in order to explain all of the mysteries of life that science or fact cannot directly prove. In this sense, "God" is just a concept that exists in the minds of human beings, not something that is actually physical or spiritual, as it is often depicted in religious texts and sources. With that being said, I think that God and evolution are not so contradictory of each other, but in many ways, actually similar, due to both being fragments of thought coming from our minds.
Now, going back to the question of whether God "created life" or not, I believe that he did, since, referring back to my original point, science cannot directly prove what actually created life, as there is little to no evidence of what went on before we even existed. Now, of course, there are theories like the "Big Bang Theory" which are generally accepted by the majority of people due to their convincing narratives, however, as these also cannot be proven directly by science due to an absence of concrete evidence, we cannot pinpoint what actually created or caused the creation of life in our universe. And it is this absence of evidence that I think has led people to believe in God and visualize it as some kind of diety that is closely related with the real world. Religion, in this sense, might also just be a source that helps people to better visualize the concept of "God" by portraying it in ways that seem more "natural" to humans.
Personally speaking, I think that both of these concepts are not mutually exclusive, since, similar to the spirit of mankind's point, evolution can be proven by fact, whereas God cannot. However, in my opinion, I do not believe that God is merely a concept of religion, but rather an idea that we, humans, have created and shaped over the course of time in order to explain all of the mysteries of life that science or fact cannot directly prove. In this sense, "God" is just a concept that exists in the minds of human beings, not something that is actually physical or spiritual, as it is often depicted in religious texts and sources. With that being said, I think that God and evolution are not so contradictory of each other, but in many ways, actually similar, due to both being fragments of thought coming from our minds.
Now, going back to the question of whether God "created life" or not, I believe that he did, since, referring back to my original point, science cannot directly prove what actually created life, as there is little to no evidence of what went on before we even existed. Now, of course, there are theories like the "Big Bang Theory" which are generally accepted by the majority of people due to their convincing narratives, however, as these also cannot be proven directly by science due to an absence of concrete evidence, we cannot pinpoint what actually created or caused the creation of life in our universe. And it is this absence of evidence that I think has led people to believe in God and visualize it as some kind of diety that is closely related with the real world. Religion, in this sense, might also just be a source that helps people to better visualize the concept of "God" by portraying it in ways that seem more "natural" to humans.