Steven, if you are still here, please check into something called 'genetic load.' You will probably not get it in your biology courses, but the reference materials will be available to you in the genetics, and especially in the population genetics courses/material.
Every population of organisms which reproduces sexually has been building a genetic load (an accumulation of heritable negative mutations). It was when I realized this, as a student in biology and genetics, that I started to play around with a little math and realized that there is no way life on earth could either be billions of years old OR could have evolved from one organism into another.
I started as a theistic evolutionist, which is basically the position I think you are taking. When I got serious about the data and what it really meant, without the professors telling me what it meant, I spent five years arguing with myself and fighting the change and then ended up a young universe creationist. That happened after graduation, however, and after a couple of years of teaching, when I finally had time to read more than I had to just to keep up!
The Bible is NOT a science TEXT book, but it most certainly IS a science GUIDE book. It gives us the parameters within which the truth can be found. God does know how to communicate with man clearly and He has done so.