OP I have not read everything you have said but what I have read seems to miss another very important possibility and like you, I get shot down ALL the time for this.

Have you considered that there never has been a beginning? Rather that everything is Eternal and eternally changing?

Within this possibility lays the probability of intervention and gene manipulation - we are even doing that today so I ask those who disagree - why couldn't it have been done before?

Regarding the so called beginning - I am NOT suggesting that the Earth, the Solar system or the galaxy are Eternal but rather part of the Eternally changing reality we currently exist in. They had a beginning and they will have an end but the substance that makes them what they are always has been and always will be.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth!
Cheers