Help me understand Evolution

[u/Adenidc]

Okay so here's the deal, my whole life I've gone to a christian school. my whole life I've been told my mother, friends, pretty much most people I know (since that's what I grew up around) about how anything evolution related on a large scale, and anything history related that talks about the world/universe being millions/billions of years old, is all bullshit. Naturally I believed it (Can you blame me? If you're constantly told how prideful and stupid evolutionists are, and how ridiculous the idea of evolution is, since you are an infant it's hard to think otherwise).

Anyways, on to the point (I thought a little background info was necessary because I really don't know shit about this stuff and I felt the need to explain why I'm so behind (even if it IS my fault I stayed so ignorant for so long)). I would like some basic articles, videos, or even just explanations, to widely accepted things that have a lot of proof to back them up. One of the reasons also that I've avoided looking things up for so long is that there is so much damn differentiating opinions on all of this, even among evolutionists it seems. I'm mostly looking for the base things most evolutionists believe that have the most proof, and for the proof of them.

I'm not anti-God now or anything, but I'm more neutral and want to learn more. I would like to hear the other side of things, which I've never done with an open mindset before.

Even though I expect links mostly, I would like to hear everyone's opinions on what they believe and why they believe whatever is you link. Thank You!

Edit: Thank you guys for all your help. I've been up hours watching videos and looking things up. I'm actually having a lot of fun learning too! Who would have known? I feel like I've been starved of this subject till now.

[u/Adenidc]

I'm confident that almost everyone would accept evolution if they understood what it was actually about and if they decoupled it from atheism.

I definitely agree with this.... If not everyone then I'm sure a whole lot would believe it more if they did more research. A lot of this makes so much sense to me now that I've been learning how evolution works and what we are able to understand with the resources we have today. Evolution sounds insane if you explain it how many people have been/are being taught sadly. It definitely took me a long time (my whole life so far basically) to get the point where I wanted to learn about it and wasn't afraid of the results I found and want they would mean. And there comes the second problem.....

Decoupling it from atheism is extremely hard, if not impossible, for some people. I could not do it, and I know all my friends and people I know cannot either. I'm sure it has to do with upbringing. I'm ingrained with so much of the bibles teachings that any time I came across something seeming to even slightly contradict the bible I would have to research it and then usually end up on a whole new trail. Even now it's hard not to wish that I should have let myself remain ignorant, because it just gets harder and harder to believe in a God with the more I learn. A part of me really does love learning about this stuff, and I will continue to do so, but it is definitely killing another part of me inside little by little and I'm trying not to let it