RE: Challenges to teaching biology

I have to say that though these students are leaning on the often
unscientific and simplistic arguments of Answers in Genesis et.al., you've
got to give them credit for gumption. If the students took this much
interest in researching the rest of their science curriculum, including all
sides of this debate, you might start seeing more future ASA members who are
scientifically knowledgeable and willing to take evolutionism to task with
sound arguments.

What both the students and the teachers need to be exposed to is information
such as is presented on the ASA site. The educational establishment is
trying to counter a religious belief system with more of the same old stuff
-- humanistic science. I think this approach will just continue to
reinforce the religion/science warfare and work against them. If they would
instead be armed with both solid evidence for old earth, etc., AND
information showing that Christian perspectives on science do not
necessarily require a young earth, they might make their jobs easier. (Oh,
horror, that would bring religion into the classroom! Well, obviously it's
there already.)

Our family homeschools, and we chose several years ago to use a religious
homeschool curriculum for science. At the time we realized that it would
probably bring in young earth arguments, but we decided at least while the
children are young it would be better for them to learn from a "faith
perspective" and be corrected later on certain scientific points, rather
than to choose a curriculum that teaches a purely naturalistic view of the
world and its origins (excluding God and contradicting the Bible) and have
to deal with a constant battle between faith and evolutionism. At the time
we weren't completely sure completely how to reconcile the Bible and science
(and I confess after following this list for some time, I'm still not
completely sure), but I had been influenced by Hugh Ross' position and was
comfortable with old earth science to a point.

Since then, I have pointed out various things in my son's curriculum (he's
now 10) which are presented as arguments for a young earth and given him a
different perspective on it. Since he tends to be fairly stubborn about
things once he learns them a certain way, the other day I decided it was
time to have "the talk" -- that not everything in his science curriculum is
necessarily right, that there is evidence for an old earth, and that many
Christians who are scientists believe that an old earth and Genesis are
compatible. As I started down that path, I mentioned one piece of evidence,
and he immediately countered with the YEC argument. I was relatively proud
of him for being able to remember and defend the position he had learned,
but I gave him another side to it. Then I came to the argument about
starlight -- the light from stars 200 million light years away took 200
million years to arrive here, therefore it would be "kind of a problem" for
the universe to be only 6000 years old. His answer: "Ooh." (as in, "that
would be a problem.") I also told him of the lake beds which have evidence
of millions of years of annual (and seasonal) sediment which is clearly
observable.

I think these two things: solid evidence for old earth and against YEC
arguments, and the idea that religious viewpoints can be compatible with old
earth science; are equally critical in this discussion. Perhaps ASA as an
organization should be more aggressive about approaching those in the
secular educational establishment with material from a Christian perspective
that would help arm these teachers deal sensitively with all sides to the
issue, and help deflect the pseudo-scientific arguments more effectively.

Jon Tandy

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Keith Miller
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 5:18 PM
To: American Scientific Affiliation
Subject: Challenges to teaching biology

To all:

This is a very sobering account of the reality of teaching biology in
some school districts. I happen to know the teacher being featured
in this article. He is one of best biology teachers in state and
nation.
***
At least half the students in this class of 14 don't believe him, though,
and they're not about to let him off easy.
***
Other students gather ammunition from sermons at church, or from the dozens
of websites that criticize evolution as a God-denying sham. They interrupt
lectures to expound on the inaccuracies of carbon dating; to disparage
transitional fossils as frauds; to show photos of ancient footprints that
they think prove humans and dinosaurs walked side by
side.
***
On the wall behind him, a poster read: "Courage is what it takes to stand up
and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and
listen."
Received on Sat Apr 1 23:56:31 2006