Why does it always have to be creation vs. evolution? Why couldn’t a God have created life, & that life evolved? The first lifeforms had to come from somewhere, & I’ve not seen that aspect explained.
It’s possible, but it seems likely that science will never be able to tell if it happened that way. It’s also possible that a God created everything last Thursday.
The major clash between “evolutionists” and “creationists” is between those that want to elevate “creation science” to the status of a real science and teach it in schools, and those who don’t want to do that. You don’t hear much from people with other beliefs.
There are theories, and there are proposed pathways that some people find plausible and some people don’t. Formally, evolution is about what happened after life started, and does not address the origin of life.
First, let me disqualify any of my answers by stating that I’m a Christian.
I doubt that those you wish to understand your view will ever be convinced of anything (especially if you have the attitude that you have to rescue them from their “wrongheadedness”). If someone is already convinced that God has given to (only) them the answers to Life, thy Universe, and Everything, information which might cast a different light on their already existing complete knowledge is ignored. For additional information to be welcomed, the person has to be aware that they don’t already posess all knowledge. Whatever you have to say will probably be met with hands over ears and shouts of “LA LA LA LA I’m not listening!” This may apply, of course, to any attempt to convince you of your “wrongheadedness”. 
A lot of what is currently accepted religious thought really has nothing to do with religion. For example, it used to be scandalous to think that the Earth was not the center fo the universe, and that everything did not revolve (literally) around mankind (dratted arrogant to think so, wouldn’t you think?). This has been disproven, and yet Christianity is alive and well, because whether Earth was the center of the universe did not make a whit’s worth of difference.
I would consider the belief that we have to be the center of everything as a kind of religious smugness, closed-mindedness and ignorance (not really as a degogatory term, but just a state of being unaware) that is more of a “missing of the mark” than a scientist or teacher who teaches evolution. However, that’s just my opinion.
Creationism and evolution are, to me, examples of this type of debate. Whether someone believes a creator made an instance of the universe or whether it occurred without divine expression is solely a matter of faith, and reason does not contribute much. If the universe and its contents was created, it was created to follow certain rules and behave a certain way. These rules to not preclude the existance of a power that made the universe behave that way, and it’s only a person’s personal choice in what to believe that affects their own view.
My own views? I’ve expressed them before in this forum, but, well, the bible commands us to love God with all our heart, our spirit, and our mind. I would take this to mean that the search for God, knowledge of our world and the universe, and truth using the tool of science is not against His will, but part of what He has told us to do. God isn’t hiding. I would think He could be found by Science as well as Art or Music or Nature.
Again, that’s only my opinion. But, maybe that at least answers your question about trying to get people to believe they don’t have to choose between reason and religion.