What are our brains for if not to think?

I don't mean to have every day be quite so focused on faith, it has just come up a lot lately.

Here is a response I just posted to a youth ministry article that was sent to me on Intelligent Design vs. Evolution. The author's take really bothered me, and I felt compelled to respond.
Here is a bit of what he said:

So, can someone be a Christian and believe in evolution? Sure. You can be a Christian and believe in all sorts of things that are false! But the real question is, Can Christianity be true and Darwinian evolution be true? I don't think they can.

I admit that my understanding of the nuances of the science may need a bit of tweaking, but nonetheless, here is my initial reaction:

This argument posits a very narrow definition of what "evolution" is. If one is so closed off to the notion that God does not work through what we perceive as "chance" that you are leaving God out of a large portion of our daily lives. I would think that most Christian accept that God plan encompasses all of our lives, even working in and through the things that seem to be merely "chance" to us. If we can accept this on the scale of a single life, I do not see why this same understanding can't be compatible with the life and development of creation.

Yes, people are wrong to say that it is all just chance. But are we not being as short sighted and closed minded if we cannot see that what some would see as "chance" is merely God's hand at work in creating, making the right things happen to create things the way that he is still actively creating?

When we present Christianity as a side against and opposed to formalized education, we do ourselves a disservice and provide fuel to those on the secular side who would claim that Christianity doesn't allow us to use our brains. Micro-evolution is a fact that can be proven in species like flat worms. Evolution as a basic biological concept, in this case, is a scientific truth. To refute "evolution" full stop requires us to flatly deny what is a proven fact. That is why we require a more nuanced understanding of this issue, which I'm not sure you are making allowances for here.

Macro-evolution is on such a scale that it is unprovable, and is therefore a theory. This is the case where one can take an educated view and still retain our faith. The more specific a scientist is (micro-biologists, micro-physicists, etc), the more likely they are to see a clear design in what is going on. Again, this is not inconsistent with the notion of evolution as a whole, but with the notion that it has to be a random event.

People like Richard Dawkins refuse to look entertain the notion that there is a certain order that can be seen in this, and instead use their science as a faith to shield them from having an open mind toward a creator, in much the same way that a denial of dinosaurs and the like shields someChristians from any true understanding of science.

God gave us brains and he wants us to use them. Jesus even tells us this as part of the greatest commandment: "Love the Lord Your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all of your mind..." True science is not a threat, but a blessing. Logic leads to a creator, not away from it.

Evolution and Christianity CAN coexist. We simply have to be willing to take the time to understand them both.

Again, I understand the elementary understanding that I have on this, but I still think that the two are compatible, and even support on another to a certain degree. Francis Collins has some interesting support on this (though I don't really think that humans evolved from monkeys, which he seems to leave space for).

At any rate, there it is.