This is an interesting post at An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution. I wonder how many Christian kids are homeschooled that are presented a YEC view only. I have no data to back this up, but I would think it’s something like 95%+. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a homeschooling science book that isn’t YEC. Is there even a Christian-based science textbook that presents a balanced view of the topic?
(BTW, has there ever been a more explosive topic than evolution and homeschooling? Throw in gay marriage and the world might explode.)
Filed under: Life in Mordor, The Body of Christ | Tagged: Evolution, Creationism, Science, Homeschooling
Ya, if I were a moderate Christian homeschooler, I would be frustrated with having to choose between Christian materials, and materials that explain evolution.
But they might be out there, if you know where to look. The Yahoo! Groups for Christian unschoolers might have some good ideas.
Check out Calvertschool.org. They are a secular homeschooling company. Also the K12 program is secular. These are the biggest, I believe. Sonlight.com teaches using both types of materials (our Usborne books all came with our Sonight programs). Those are just a few off of the top of my head. Personally, I feel my children need to hear both sides, or else how would they know how to refute the side they don’t agree with?
[...] Evolution and Homeschooling Is there a Christian homeschooling curriculum that teaches evolution? Or at least does not teach Young Earth Creation as the only science? Surely they exist somewhere. [...]
I homeschool, I teach YEC and Evolution on my own. I’m a Christian and my brother lives with a man. No exploding, just living. : )
Ok Mike I don’t see what is so hard to understand about “six days” of creation. Each day during God’s creation of the earth had a morning and an evening. God called them days. If you have the opportunity to teach truth, teach it. If the days mentioned in Genesis were not a real day in the sense that we know a day as, then the vegetation created on the third day could not have survived a day or night of a thousands years or so in length as some have theorized. The evening and the morning were a day as we know a day to be. Why should we entertain any other option? BTW my wife has home schooled all of our kids. She taught from the biblical view of creation.
I’m not exactly advocating evolution at this point, merely wondering whether there is a Christian based homeschooling textbook that does a good job of explaining evolution.
As to your question, if the vegetation can survive before the sun is created, why is anything else impossible?
You do understand that evolution, is a theory. If parents who homeschool aren’t teaching their children this theory, as well as the many many others out there, then they are doing their children a disservice and molding them into one-sided individuals not able to see the other side of a coin in order to make the best possible decision when they need to the most. Or they just presume to live in a bubble all their lives.
Well, I’ve been accused of alot of things as a homeschooling parent, but creating “bubble children” isn’t one of them! We made atoms out of those “permanent bubble” things and toothpicks… does that count?
I think most of us - with perhaps the exception of those creating public school textbooks AND the teachers coming out of state colleges teaching it(!) - realize evolution is a theory. The curriculm I have used teaches abouts God’s creation, what the world teaches with the theory of evolution, AND how God’s word refutes many of those theories.
Did you know many of the things still used today in support of evolution have been proven false or thrown into doubt? As an example, carbon based testing can be skewed by flood conditions. The “missing link” was the skeleton of a man infused with the skeleton of a chimp - and the man who introduced it admitted it before his death! However, these things (and there are others) are never “undone” or removed from print.
I think before you can assume that 95% of homeschoolers are teaching YEC only, you need to check statistics about homeschoolers. I’m not certain nationwide what the average is, but in my home state about 17% of homeschoolers are not professing Christians and homeschool for other reasons.
I leave you with this thought. The world is full of counterfeit money. However all nations teach those who handle money for their financial institutions everything there is to know about the REAL bills - not the counterfeits. Know why? People will change counterfeits to try to “perfect” them. Why would I spend great amounts of time teaching my children the falsehoods of evolution when I can teach them about the real deal?
I’m just sayin’……
Really Robin, you seem to be combining comments to me and the previous commenter. A little separation would be nice as I never referred to anyone as living in a bubble. Also, it is clear that I was talking about Christian home schoolers only, so no need to check my statistics (of course I’m still assuming, which is never a good idea).
Secondly, when you use the word theory, I don’t think you’re using it in the same sense as a scientist would. A scientific theory is not the same as a hypothesis, which is how many Christians use the word.
As to the rest of your comment, thank you for understanding the point of the post. Why would a Christian even introduce the idea of evolution in a home schooling environment? More importantly, why would a Christian present a view of evolution that is not distorted (Ken Hamm) or for the purpose of destroying it? Is this possible in today’s evangelical culture? I really don’t have an answer, I just thought it was a good question to bring up.
Mike,
My point about the creation of vegetation is that, yes, they were created a day prior to the sun. The vegetation could survive a day as we know it, but if a day were to last a thousand years as some have theorized per 2 Peter 3:8 (used way out of context) then the vegetation could not have survived.
Evolution of man is a theory because it can not be recreated in order to be proven true. It would take too long, generations upon generations. Organisms that have a very short life cycle, like bacteria and even some bugs, can be observed changing over a long time period. We can SEE the evolution of these creatures. They do change.
God’s creation of the Earth is also considered to be a theory because it can not be recreated in the lab.
A theory is not a proven fact until in can be recreated by different people in seperate attempts. As far as I can tell, evolution and creationism are both theories. You just have to choose what theory to believe. In other words, pick where you place YOUR FAITH. What one person believes may not be what another person believes.
Does someone really have to be right?
Nicole
ex-physics teacher and hs’er to three