Theistic Evolution compared to Young Earth and Intelligent Design Creationism

Theistic Evolution, YEC, and IDC all believe that God created man. Theistic Evolution believes that God's method of creating all of the many species on Earth is evolution. IDC agrees that evolution has been involved in some changes within species. However according to IDC, evolution cannot create new species. IDC asserts that God (a.k.a., the Intelligent Designer) has created complex biological mechanisms and even entire species as special acts (i.e., miracles) - outside of the evolutionary process. YEC weaves together a mostly literal interpretation of the Bible. Some of these disagreements may be gleaned from Genesis (e.g., King James Version, emphasis added):

Genesis I, v.11: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis I, v.20: And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Genesis I, v.24: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Genesis I, v.27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis II, v.2: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis II, v.7: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

According to some verses in Genesis, God caused the land and the oceans to breed life. Other verses in Genesis suggest that God intervened directly. Theistic Evolution views the natural processes of evolution as God's method to create man (e.g., Genesis I:11, 20, & 24). Young Earth and Intelligent Design Creationism claim that numerous, special acts of creation by God were necessary to create man (e.g., Genesis I:27, & II:7). The Answers in Genesis, Young-Earth Creationists in Petersburg, Kentucky, assert the authority and supremacy of the Bible in all things, including a literal, six-day creation (e.g., Genesis II:2).

These are important questions and nothing in this essay should be interpreted as any form of criticism or disrespect for any religious views regarding Creation. But, let's not forget our focus: Ohio's high school students. How can we develop a balanced curriculum to which our children should be exposed? For public school humanities, the answer may not be as difficult as it may seem: teach all the different perspectives; this is what a survey course in the history and philosophies of science and religion really is. In the words of the proponents of IDC, "teach the controversy." But let us be truthful about where the controversy lies: the controversy resides in the different perspectives regarding the philosophies and beliefs about the creation of life, not about the observable, scientific evidence regarding the facts and theory of evolution.