I think you can be a Christian, and believe in the Christian God, Jesus etc but can be sceptical of the writings in the bible as they were just written by people.

I'd say it's more appropriate to say that evangelical Christians believe the bible is the inspired word of God. Anyone can call themselves a Christian and pour whatever meaning into the word they want, but when I speak of evangelical Christianity, I am referring to those who would view the bible as the only infallible revelation given to us by God.

As far as the biblical interpretation, believing in an infallible book doesn't mean we take every work as wooden literal. Biblical scholars (and laymen as well) have the responsibility of taking into account many factors about a passage before determining it's meaning. One key part of this (though not the only factor) is the form of literature being employed. The psalms are poetry, the parables are illustrations (designed BTW, to make things less clear, not more so). There are several passages that are still debated among evangelical, though the main concepts (such as salvation by grace, not works) are very clearly stated. I must underscore the point, however, that biblical interpretation is not a matter of picking up the bible and saying "this is what these words seem to mean to me," because that very quickly gets us down the road of reading whatever we want into the scriptures and then using it to against other people (which of course, happens every day). There are guidelines for approaching the scripture, and when people try to come at the text in isolation without respect to the rest of the bible, the form of literature being employed, the audience to whom the book was written, or a host of other considerations, horrible misunderstandings can result.

That being said, what about Genesis? Well, what I am about to say should not be taken as mainline evangelical Christianity, (I might even get branded liberal) but I think it's difficult to say. Did God create everything? Yes, absolutely. Did he do it in seven days? It's difficult to tell, even biblical scholars debate this point. Is it a parable? No, I don't think so. Does it preclude evolution? No, well not without a bit of theology first. I'll explain:

Since there is some debate (at least in my mind) over the time periods which the creation occurred in Genesis, could God have used evolution to form humans "from the dust"? From only that, I'd say sure. The larger problem with evolution (from a theological standpoint) is that we are talking about the weak dying simply because they are weak (something not in God's nature as it has been revealed to us), before Adam sinned, and therefore before the fall. Yet before the fall, the bible teaches the world was a perfect paradise, exactly as God would have it, not the corrupted version we live in today.

So this is the big theological problem with evolution: it doesn't seem to be in God's nature. However, (and this is where my fellow evangelicals might cringe) I do believe that here we have a good bit of logic, but it only takes one misunderstanding to have missed the point completely. Certainly the evidence I was given for evolution in school was bad science, ("we've proven species adapt, therefore species grow into other species"), but I'm not precluding the possibility, given better science. We are always growing and learning, and perhaps some of our theology is wrong, though it is hard for me to see how it could be.

Still, in the end evolution does not prove that we appeared on the scene by random chance, though I suppose that case has been tried before. However, saying that men eveloved from apes is still a long way off from saying inanimate "clay" (or something else) got the "spark of life". Somewhere along the line, life had to happen, and evolution (so far as I can tell) can't explain that away. Even then, evolution doesn't explain how the matter got here in the first place.

So the stance I take is that I don't know when it comes to these things. As of now I don't believe in evolution because the evidence I've been given isn't good enough and my theology says "no." However, I'll admit I haven't studied the real science behind evolution at all (as opposed the what I received in school, which wasn't real science), so I have to admit ignorance.

But the bottom line is this: I believe the bible is divinely inspired. Predictions that have come true both about Jesus and other events in the middle east attest to this. Archeology and history time and time again have backed up the bibles historical accounts, even when historians thought the bible was off base. I also believe that science is usefull and, in fact, something given to us by God. When the two seem to contradict I have to be patient and check my understanding of both, realizing that answerers might not be immediately obvious with our present knowledge. However, I don't believe the Genesis account should be the stumbling block to faith: it is one mystery in the bible where there are many things clear to us. The clear things tell us that there is a Savior who died to save us from sin. If I focus my attention on origins and never get to the most important aspect of faith, then I have done those who are still seeking the truth of Jesus a grave disservice.