I would point out that the Civil War was about many things: slavery, states' rights, the ongoing economic issues involved in an idustrial North and an agarian South and, of course, the question of secession if a State or States were extremely dissatisfied with being part of the U.S.  I think all of those issues were involved and need to be studied.

The "major questions" about evolution.....Simple, it doesn't fit with the conservative Christians' literal interpretation of the Bible.  Those "major questions" have nothing to do with the extensive evidence supporting evolution, but are a result of the cognitive dissonance that evidence creates for the "faithful," and, of course, given a choice between denying all that evidence and questioning beliefs you faithfully follow, many conservative Christians have chosen to deny evolution.

It's fine that you "ended up" a conservative.  It is also evidence that those schools in the Seattle/Olympia area support free thinking.