Hi! I'm not totally sure how to articulate this, so I'll try to just lay out my situation and request briefly.
I was raised Christian and until a few years ago basically held the Bible-literalist/young-earth/whatever position. Much struggling and attempted studying has led me to jettison most of those views in favor of one that accepts what I think modern scholarship is telling us about life (evolution), the world (old-earth), and the related topics. In brief, I still consider myself a theist and a Christian (and am not interested in being persuaded otherwise), but now accept most of the things my old views rejected (the science stuff, the mythological aspects of the Bible, etc.).
My problem is that most of my family, friends and associates have issues with this. I'm not particularly interested in 'converting' any of them at this point, as I'm still working my own views out for myself (and I really do go out of my way to squash such conversations when others initiate them),but I would like to do justice to the topics in question when the inevitable conversations/debates/arguments/fistfights are forced on me (which is more often than I'd like).
I'm a writer and philosopher by training and trade, so my self-education on these matters has included a ton of books and a lot of internet reading, but I feel like I've just been jumping from one thing to the next, and since I don't have a formal background in the sciences, I'm honestly not sure how to go about constructing a good self-education program that will teach me more about these issues and prepare me to discuss them intelligently.
I said all that to say: would anyone be willing to either help me develop a reading list/study program designed to help me learn the ins-and-outs of the theory of evolution as it stands today, or point me to a resource where I can get some guidance on this? Obviously, evolution is only one of the topics at play here, but it seems to be the lynch-pin subject with most of the people I struggle with, and I'd really like to be able to represent it accurately and effectively.
My interest in this matter isn't limited to evolution, so suggestions for some great directed study in the other pertinent fields (cosmology, paleontology, quanta, etc.) are more than welcome, too. I guess what I'm really asking is 'where do I start?', which is a broad question, I know, but I hope my little spiel helped clarify where I'm at in all this.
At any rate, I look forward to suggestions and guidance, and I thank you in advance for reading what I've written!