You have some answers over there now - apache isn't configured correctly or php isn't installed. If you can't get it figured out, use XAMPP http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html. It'll do everything for you
thanks for the reply. i read the answers but unfortunately none have proven helpful thus far. i installed everything through mamp and after rereading multiple tutorials nothing indicated that there was an additional step necessary to configure php when using mamp. did i miss something? thanks again.