Cause and consequence
All these discussions are really a cause and consequence discussion.
Take this example.
Two fellas walking down the street, one keeps snapping his fingers. When asked why, he says, it's to keep the tigers away. But there are no tigers here? He answers, yes, you see, it works.
This IS really what it is all about. So many theories can explain this, and for some reason it is thought by many that one has to choose one of them only.
Cause and consequence is often a chain of consequences. Without mentioning too many theorems, laws, postulates and clever scholars, my natural explanation is this. The only one law I have to fall back to, is Newtons Third.
We generate thrust by accelerating air opposite the way we want to fly.
Speed picks up, until it balances out drag - as hitting the air molecules takes our momentum away. The energy does not dissapear, it is just transferred to these molecules we hit. No atmosphere -> no drag, but also no lift.
As speed picks up, air is deflected downwards by the wing. Any wing will do, as long as there is 1. Enough thrust 2. Stability/control. I would say even a tank can fly, given enough thrust and stability/control surfaces.
From generating thrust to obtaining the lift, so may therories/postulates/laws can be used, like the Bernoulli law causes the pressure difference, which in turn causes downwash. Or "the molecules are forced down" (like waterskis, mentioned above). How much, and why ... it matters mainly to aerodynamic engineers when the design and build aircraft, so they can predict the characteristics before they even test the first aircraft.
So even if I believe that Newtons Third, there are events that must happen before we get that far. It is not a religious you-have-to-pick-one-law-only thing!
Another similar cause and consequence discussion is the one about ground effect. I have seen about 5 different explanations to it. The one I thing best describes it (though they are probably all true), is that the wake turbulence is reduced by the ground stopping the turning motion at the wingtips, and when less molecules are deflected the wrong way (up instead of down), less molecules must be accelerated down. Knowing that, you can call it an air cushion, tilting the lift vector, reducing the downwash, air that cannot escape as easy etc.