If I may interject and momentarily change the subject:
As regards origins, I've written a book about origins, which has the great merit that it should not inspire fanatical devotion or questioning whether people who disagree are really full-fledged Orthodox. You have my invitation to read it, but my purpose here is to mention it in passing as there is something much bigger than the fossil record at play.
What we have discovered is that with physical constants and the size of the universe (I'm not trying to settle age), the physical constants (the speed of light, for instance) appear to be remarkably fine-tuned to support life. The uncontested opinion of scientists I have read discussing the physical constants of the world we live in is that if you perturb the balance by almost the faintest bit, the possibility of life collapses. The chance of constants happening to support life by chance are a bit difficult to describe without using scientific notation, but one explanation is that the chances of random physical constants supporting life are much more exacting than a sniper hitting a proton (smaller than any atom) at the other side of the universe.
One detail of that discussion is to ask, "Why is the universe so vast?" And what turns up is that just as it would be impossible for us to live under the faintest perturbation of physical constants, the question, "How much leg room do we need?" is answered, "Pretty much a universe's worth." We couldn't come close to living in a universe where the earth was the largest object, and we couldn't come close to living in a universe where the sun or solar system was the largest object either.
Now to get on to a patristic point. God uses evil people as essentially "leg room", essential to the formation of saints (by which I do not here mean only canonized saints, but all who receive a good answer before the Dread Judgment Seat of Christ). If I may be excused a C.S. Lewis quote, Satan is without doubt nothing else than a hammer in the hand of a benevolent and severe God. For all, either willingly or unwillingly, do the will of God: Satan and Judas as instruments, John and Peter as sons.
A note to Nadia in particular: The issues you mention are significant, and there is possibility for great evil. But the biggest thing you can do is not activism or its kin, worry; St. Isaac of Syria(?) said, "Find peace with yourself, and ten thousand around you will be saved." All that we need to do is attend to our own sanctification and repent of our sins.
(Written as I am seeking to enter monasticism as an arena for the repentance of my many sins.)
