Evolution and Religion

In the ongoing debate about the position of religion on evolution, this is the best position I have seen, and it comes from nowhere other than Swami Vivekanada and his teachings on Vedanta.
The video at the end does a superb job of explaining the confluence of Vedanta and evolution. I am trying to give a gist here.

Vedanta rests on 2 basic beliefs with regards to existence and evolution.
1. There is a continous all pervading Consciousness in the Universe.
2. The Conscious manifests itself in a cyclic manner.

With these two basic beliefs one can understand the whole of evolution as well as the formation of universe. The underlying Consciousness first manifests itself in the simplest, the most subtlest form as energy during the Big Bang. The formed energy becomes grosser and more complex and forms matter in the form of atoms, molecules and inanimate objects.

The next step of evolution is the combination of atoms and molecules into small, living organisms, which become more and more complex from microbes to small animals to mammals. Man, of course, forms the most complex of these, and has an added faculty of rationality as a result of evolution.

The common thread in the process of evolution is the struggle of the Consciousness to manifest itself in more and more complex form, starting with pure energy and ending in man. The view of Vedanta is not antagonistic to Darwin's theory of natural selection, but in accordance with it.

The last step of this process is the evolution of man. And it is not more at the macroscopic, gross level of body, but it is in the subtler, more complicated level of mind. Human mind has no doubt evolved over time, and become more complex. What is the end result of this evolution of mind? What is the next step in the manifestation of this Consciousness after the formation of a rational mind?

That step, is the realization of the human self, the understanding of the nature of the manifesting Consciousness, the realization of the unity of all existing things into that Consciousness. This is the attainment of Buddhahood, where no duality exists, where the understanding of Consciousness as the sole all-pervading entity dawns upon the man. That is the completion of evolution, the highest possible state of manifestation, the realization of the Unmanifest.

Thus, Vedanta has complete agreement with evolution and science, as far as the mechanism is concerned. But Vedanta goes a step ahead and generalizes the entire process as the manifestation of the Consciousness.
I hope the video, with Swamiji's teachings, gives a better idea of the same.