Many theists have come to regard evolution as a handy tool that God has used in constructing the world as we know it. I have to admit that this view has some appeal. It conveniently deals with the scientific evidence for evolution while still making room for a Creator to account for the current gaps in scientific understanding.
If I were a deity about to prepare a universe for intelligent life that could provide the adoration I crave, I would likely regard the process of evolution as a great way to to save myself some work. I'm assuming I'm not omniscient and would have to expend at least some thought and energy on trying to come up with something close to an optimal solution for my preferred vision of intelligent worshippers.
I might choose to run multiple simulations on some sort of powerful computing device, but real world evolution could also work, especially if I had sufficient patience. This might even be preferable if I desired a universe that developed with minimal interference from me. I could just set things in motion with a reasonable expectation of something developing somewhere that satisfied me.
However, there's a problem. The entire concept of evolution seems to undermine the concept of a creator. It's a human tendency to view things that appear complicated, like a house, to be designed and built by something even more complicated, like a carpenter. Evolution presents a different way of looking at things, so that once you accept the notion that things can become more complex over time, you undermine the main reason for invoking a creator in the first place.
Additionally, since the idea of an eternal creator presents such profound logical and philosophical challenges, many find it easier to discard the notion entirely.
But what about a creator who isn't eternal? You would have to ask who or what created the creator. This is a path that theists seem mostly unwilling to take. Atheists also seemed to be put off by this kind of scenario, viewing it as an unnecessary complication. They would rather view our universe as developing in an entirely natural way, rather than postulate a deity who evolved naturally in a universe, who then interfered in some way in the development of our own universe. One could even speculate on the possibility of a succession of godlike deities who have a natural origin on one end and result in our universe and mankind on the other.
This notion seems inelegant and unnecessarily complicated, yet that is often how reality is. As an example, it is not sufficient for me to explain my own appearance as the result of a natural birth by my mother. I must go further back. Even if I were a theist, I would have to allow for thousands of years of repeated births before invoking a special creative act. I favor the idea of countless generations over many millions of years before the first organism somehow arrived. (Whether it was planted, created or assembled itself spontaneously, I can't say with certainty.) Could it be that our universe has a similar pedigree? Could it be that our universe developed over many generations of previous universes. Could godlike creatures have been responsible for at least some of the births of successive universes?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this happened. I'm not even saying it's probable. I am saying it's possible and will argue that it's more likely than many people might like to admit.
This is a remarkable irony. Although the concept of evolution seems to argue against the kind of God that theists generally prefer to believe in, it seems to make allowances for the possibility of lesser gods that both atheists and theists tend to find distasteful.
If evolution managed to result in creatures of our intelligence, then it's likely that it could result in far more advanced creatures. (Either this has already happened, or could happen in the future or in a different universe, perhaps one with slightly different laws of physics.) Some of these more advanced creatures may seem godlike from our perspective.
Since we can currently speculate on how new universes could be produced in a laboratory type situation, it may be possible that more advanced creatures (or future humans) could actually produce new universes.
It may be possible for a universe to spawn new universes in a natural way. (For example, suppose that the formation of black holes produces new universes that are pinched off from the original universe. This could result in a type of natural selection process on a multiversal scale. If the new universe had a minor reshuffling of the physical constants and laws of physics of the parent universe, then this could mean that there is a selection process that favors universes that produce black holes. These kinds of universes also appear to be more favorable for the formation of life. This could partly explain the remarkable coincidence that we live in a universe that seems so well suited for life.)
If life develops once in a universe by natural means and evolves to an advanced state, then it's possible that advanced life form could then then seed or design new life forms on other planets. It's even possible that these intended introductions of life could be far more common than the accidental development of life by natural means. Similarly, the intentional creation of new universes could be very common compared to new universes that are formed without intelligent interference.
I find the possibilities to be staggering. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question when we ask if God used evolution to create us? It might be better to question if the existence of one or more godlike creatures is an important part of the process of evolution that eventually resulted in our existence.
Please pardon my rambling thoughts. I just haven't heard these issues discussed very often. I welcome your thoughts.