Christianity Today: A New Creation Story

A reader was kind enough to pass this story on today.  Christianity Today has decided to follow the Atlantic's lead and has published a story subtitled Why do more homeschoolers want evolution in their textbooks?  Sarah Zylstra writes:

Christian homeschool science textbooks have long taught young earth creationism (YEC) almost exclusively. But observers say a growing number of parents want texts that also teach evolution.

"Homeschooling has broadened so much, and now includes many Christian groups who have never adopted [YEC]," said homeschool pioneer Susan Wise Bauer, a history professor at Virginia's College of William and Mary. "Also, there are a lot of younger evangelicals who have come to a different way of understanding Genesis, while still holding [on to their] evangelical roots.

Numbers on the trend are hard to pin down. Still, BioLogos president Deborah Haarsma says that it's "fairly common" for homeschooling families to request materials from her organization, which promotes theistic evolution. Some of these parents still believe in a young earth, says program director Kathryn Applegate, but they want their children exposed to different perspectives.

This is good news.  Although the magazine historically has not supported EC/TE, that they are tackling it at all is worth taking notice of.  Like the historical Adam issue, this will only increase in visibility within the Christian community.  The lock that YEC has on home schooling must be broken if there is to be any progress in this area.

What remains to be seen is if some of these curricula that address evolution do it honestly.  I already know that Abecka does not.  There is evidence that BJ does not either.  Still, this is a movement in the right direction away from the YEC gnostic perspective.

This magazine has come a long way from their anti-evolution diatribes of the 1990s.  I got fed up with it and canceled my subscription right around then and have not picked it up since.  I might have to.

News Looking Up For Accurate Science in Homeschooling?

The Atlantic has an excellent article on changes that are happening in the homeschool market that suggest that many homeschoolers are getting disgusted with the bad science.  David Wheeler writes:

For homeschooling parents who want to teach their children that the earth is only a few thousand years old, the theory of evolution is a lie, and dinosaurs coexisted with humans, there is no shortage of materials. Kids can start with the Answers in Genesis curriculum, which features books such as Dinosaurs of Eden, written by Creation Museum founder Ken Ham. As the publisher's description states, "This exciting book for the entire family uses the Bible as a 'time machine' to journey through the events of the past and future."

It's no secret that the majority of homeschooled children in America belong to evangelical Christian families. What's less known is that a growing number of their parents are dismayed by these textbooks.

Take Erinn Cameron Warton, an evangelical Christian who homeschools her children. Warton, a scientist, says she was horrified when she opened a homeschool science textbook and found a picture of Adam and Eve putting a saddle on a dinosaur. "I nearly choked," says the mother of three. "When researching homeschooling curricula, I found that the majority of Christian homeschool textbooks are written from this ridiculous perspective. Once I saw this, I vowed never to use them." Instead, Warton has pulled together a curriculum inspired partly by homeschool pioneer Susan Wise Bauer and partly by the Waldorf holistic educational movement

If you will recall, it was the whole "dinosaur-with-a-saddle" problem that got Ken Ham into hot water, recently.The sad thing is that the biblical stories have been twisted so far out of proportion that they are barely recognizable for what they are and pictures like this, which should strike any student of the Bible as ridiculous, are simply accepted. 

Wheeler writes that many people homeschool not for religious reasons but because they don't like what is being taught in the public schools. That is partly so and partly not. One of the principle reasons that many do not like the public schools is that God has been summarily removed from the picture and it is hard to instill biblical values over the secular ones that the kids are pummeled with every day.

Part of the reason that some of us do not have our kids in public schools is because of the progressive dumbing-down not just of the students but of the administration, as well. Witness the recent problems resulting from lack of rudimentary common sense on the part of teachers and administrators involving children with pastries and toy soldiers. In the first case, the common sense was evident to everyone except the school officials, who suggested counseling for kids (rather than themselves) who were troubled by the incident. Most homeschoolers look on at these stories with a mixture of disbelief, horror and amusement and think, "There but for the grace of God, go we." But for those of us who despair of the lack of critical thinking in the sciences, hope is on the way:

The rising number of homeschool families striving to reconcile belief in God with today's scientific consensus has attracted the attention of at least one publisher -- Christian Schools International in Grand Rapids, Michigan...The CSI science curriculum clearly presents science from a Christian perspective, but does not attempt to discredit the theory of evolution. The content presents God as the author of all of creation, no matter how he did it or when he did it."

This is welcome news for those of us that just watched a child slog through It couldn't Just Happen, which does no better a job than Of Pandas and People in getting the biological and evolutionary sciences right. For both of these books, the emphasis is single-minded: the destruction of evolution. There is no other objective.  If conventional, accurate science is trod upon in the process, so be it.

I don't expect miracles overnight but this is a good first step.  There will be backlash from groups like Answers in Genesis, Abeka and Bob Jones, however.  I just hope that these "underdog" publishers stay true to their mission.  We will all benefit from it. 

Musings From the Atlanta Constitution on Louisiana

Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Constitution wonders “Is Louisiana the future of Georgia’s education system?” He writes:

John White, Louisiana’s school superintendent, has told the press that it should be up to parents, not the state, to gauge whether private schools are delivering a quality education. “To me, it’s a moral outrage that the government would say, ‘We know what’s best for your child,’” White said. “Who are we to tell parents we know better?”

That “who are we to judge?” question is critically important. When fully implemented, the Louisiana program has the potential to shift well over a billion dollars a year in taxpayer money out of the public system into the hands of private for-profit and non-profit schools. Surely that gives state officials not just the right but the obligation to ensure that the money is well-spent and delivers quality education. But that’s counter to the philosophy driving the school voucher movement.

The purpose of the school voucher program for kids is so that they can get a better education, not a different one. While it is certainly true that there are horror stories of schools where the school theatre department is told that they can't perform West Side Story because it is racist and puts on The Vagina Monologues instead and politically correct thought runs rampant, science education should not be up for discussion.

If the science doesn't follow what is accepted by experts all over the planet, there should be no federal money going to it, whatever. Aside from the Establishment Clause issues, it is simply promoting bad science and using the school system to do it. If I were the state, I would shut this program down immediately.

On another level, it is deeply disappointing that these schools using these curricula seem to think that they are producing kids that can ever be competitive in science fields when they get taught this nonsense. It is my sincere hope that more colleges and universities will deny entrance to students that come out of these schools and who cannot demonstrate basic knowledge of astronomy, geology, cosmology and biology.

I disagree with him about what drives the school voucher movement, though. In us and in most people that I know, the desire to seek education outside the public schools is driven by the desire to make sure our kids get the best education that they can. Of all of the public schools in my area, only a few are decent and, as I mentioned above, one does not have to go far to find horror stories of bad public school teachers and schools. In most cases, the home-schooled kids are more prepared for college academically than their public school peers—except in science.

Other dangers await, as well. I have a friend who's daughter has drifted away from the faith and in the context of this, when her parents asked her how her home school education was, she replied “I wish you had told me more about evolution.”

Letter to Rand Paul

I just sent this letter to the Rand Paul campaign. Paul, if you will recall, dodged a question on the age of the earth at a home school convention. This evasion provided a good deal of grist for the "GOP as scientifically illiterates" mill. The letter reads:

Dear Dr. Paul,

At a recent home school convention when you were asked how old the earth is, you "passed." As a scientist who is concerned that the GOP is embracing a scientifically bankrupt model of earth and universal origins that proposes that the universe was created six thousand years ago, I would be most grateful if you would clarify your position on this question. If, like me, you share this concern, it would be most welcome for you to come forward as a Republican who accepts a scientifically grounded view of origins and yet who espouses a Christian world view.Such a pronouncement would show the media that there are non-democrats running for public office that have not rejected modern science.Thank you for your time.

Lets see if I get a response.

Charles Johnson Takes Rand Paul to Task Over the Age of the Earth

Charles Johnson, the erstwhile conservative of Little Green Footballs, is concerned that Rand Paul doesn't know the age of the earth. Here is the video in question:



Very early in the video he is asked how old the earth is and responds that he is going to pass on the answer. Johnson writes:

Did he dodge the question because he’s a creationist and he knows that he shouldn’t reveal it for political reasons, or because he’s not a creationist and he knows he shouldn’t reveal it for political reasons? Either way, this is very sleazy behavior.

My opinion: I think he probably is a creationist, just like his father Ron Paul, because his world view matches the creationist world view in every respect.

I don't agree. I think that he may genuinely not know what the age of the earth is or is expressing some discomfort with the standard evangelical, young earth position. I think if he was truly a young earth creationist in regard to this question, he would have said so. He is not exactly in a hostile crowd. This is a collection of Home schoolers, the vast majority of whom are likely young earth creationists.

My wife and I home school our children because the quality of the public schools in our areas is rather suspect. I have been to home schooling curriculum fairs. It is lockstep anti-evolution, recent earth creationism as far as the eye can see. I have commented on my frustration with this here, here, and here (amongst other places).

In fact, I have no idea what Rand Paul thinks of the age of the earth (although I am inclined to write and ask him) but it is truly odd that he would dodge the question knowing that an affirmation of a young earth creation would resonate with the audience. The issues section of his senatorial race web page is conspicuously silent on this question, perhaps because he has seen what sort of hot water his fellow Republicans have gotten into. Although he supports home schooling, that does not say anything about his views on the age of the earth. I support home schooling also. We will see.

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Jerry Coyne Reacts to the Home School Ruckus

Jerry Coyne, who, if you will recall, co-reviewed sections of textbooks by Apologia and Bob Jones and gave them failing grades, began receiving email from "Christians." Here is an example of what he got:

Dear Sir,
I am very upset with what you said within a recent article on yahoo. Sir, I’m going to tell you something that you need to hear. Sir, You are going to HELL. Because when GOD CREATED the Earth HE made everything perfect and in GOD’s perfect plan humans didn’t need to be evolved from monkeys. So there evolution is wrong. GO Read the bible it tells you the truth, see what GOD said about creation, not what some Man thought were we came from. Because I believe that WORD OF GOD is the truth and nothing else is.
Yours truly,
a GOD fearing Man

That was the nice one. Here, from another post by Coyne, is the not so nice one. I have altered it just a bit in obvious ways:

Hey Jerry Coyne f**k you. You evolution faggot. Darwinism and evolution are the biggest pile of s**t lies ever made on the face of GODS green earth. People in the 1800’s thought Darwin was a dumb ass f**king lunatic. Home school books are lying to children? On no you son of a b**ch you and all these liberal piece of shit scum bag evolutionists are lying to children and every public school in the world. . . So go f**k your self or an ape and evolve some grotesque ape kids you loser fuck. I beat the s**t out of people like you, you cock smoking douche nozzle.

As I read this, at least part of me wondered aloud "is this a troll?" Due to the nature of free speech being what it is, there are trolls out there on the internet. I have had trolls try to post on my site. It is my sincere hope that this is an example of the writings of a troll. If not, this is exactly the kind of ammunition Jerry Coyne, P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins need to say "See, Christians are even nastier than we atheists. Where's the love of Christ here???" Interestingly, in the comments sections, a number of people have suggested the same thing I did. There are probably other Christians that read Coyne's site that were caught between the eyes like I was.

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