In the past people believed that they just got dumped on the world by God ready made, like washing machines. But realistically, this was a little ambitious. What really happened was that God worked up to people by starting small and getting all the details right before he rushed on to bigger projects. He was just a bit embarrassed to admit it to us afterwards, that's all.
Evolution was the key to getting from one step to another, and it is a very simple process. One organism that is old and inferior will suddenly spontaneously turn into another. For example, when it was time for the land to be colonised many millions of years ago, some of the many fish swimming in the sea would have suddenly turned into mammals such as elephants. Many of these would have quickly died of surprise or drowned before they could get to land, but a few lucky animals who were fit enough to reach the shores would have thrived there. This is where the phrase "Survival of the fittest" comes from.
It is a common misconception that humans evolved from apes. People
believe this because scientists keep telling them it's true, and also
because of the 'evidence' that we supposedly look pretty similar.
Here are two pictures:
The first is an ape, and the second is me. I think you will all agree on two things: the two have very little in common, and the ape is much better-looking.
Humans in fact evolved from sheep. The evidence for this so far boils down to the fact that we have wool in our heads that we call the brain, and... well, obviously if there were too many similarities things wouldn't have improved that much, would they?
Unfortunately for God, using evolution and without telling us could very well be his biggest mistake; as the fact has since been used to prove categorically that He does not exist.