Genesis and Jesus

Evangelicals spend a lot of time fighting about Genesis and the proper interpretation thereof.  Catholics spend a lot less time on it for reasons which are not fully clear to me.  My area of scholarship is religion, law, and politics, so I am far from expert in this controversy as either a theologian or a scientist.

What I am curious about and would like to see discussion of here at this blog is why this issue commands so much attention relative to other matters.  Let me explain what I mean.  I became a Christian because I became convinced of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  To me, his resurrection is the point upon which a person must become convinced.  Nothing else is comparable.

The resurrection of Jesus is where the whole thing rests, isn’t it?  If he rose, then we need to follow him.  If he did not, then we are back to just choosing our faith on the basis of preference or a mystical experience.

How does the Genesis battle get in front of that?  Am I missing something?  I am completely open to the possibility that I am.

(In bringing this up I am not jumping on the Darwin train.  I think reasonable people of all faiths or none should probably have strong reservations about buying that package, especially in its widest-reaching forms.)