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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Homeschooling and Creationism

 
Not all homeschoolers are Creationists but for strong Biblical literalists homeschooling does offer an easy way of "protecting" children from evil ideas in the real world. Such ideas may cause them to doubt their religion.

If you are a Young Earth Creationist there are some problems associated with the anti-science approach to education. If would be nice to have some helpful advice in case your children ever have to deal with the real world outside the home.

The current issue of Home School Enrichment magazine comes to the rescue. They have an article called Creation and You that's available for free download. (You have to give them an email address.)

The main part of the article extols the virtues of the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum; "600,000 visitors have gone through its doors into an amazing experience demonstrating the power, creativity, and love of the Creator God." I suppose this is a good thing if you're into brainwashing. We just spent yesterday with two young girls in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and there was very little evidence of the "power, creativity, and love of a Creator God." On the other hand, there was quite a bit of good science. Our two friends might have got a bad impression of Biblical literalism. If their parents had been Young Earth Creationists we would have been in big trouble for leading them astray.

Anti-science homeschoolers are right to keep their children away from real museums.

But that's not the only problem they face. What to do if your kids want to have a career in Creation Science? Hmmm ... that's a tough one, isn't it? Here's the answer ....
Preparing for a Career in Creation Science

Answers in Genesis content developers Gary Vaterlaus and Roger Patterson agree that more researchers are needed in Creation Science, but warn that the path may not be easy. Several Christian colleges across the country offer science courses taught from a Young-Earth Creationist perspective, but few research positions are available to those with anything less than a Master’s degree in their field; more likely a Ph.D. And, Roger says, getting those degrees will likely require spending some time in a secular university.

Furthermore, Gary explains that the evolutionary teachings at these secular universities are only part of the problem—there is also a very real prejudice against Creationists who attempt to embark upon a career in any of the relevant branches of science. Aside from the strong possibility of a known-Creationist student receiving failing grades merely for believing God created the universe, Gary cited a case where evolutionists actually petitioned a university to revoke a graduate’s Ph.D. when it was discovered he was a Creationist.

There is a need for young, up-and-coming students to enter the realm of Creation Science, but Gary and Roger emphasize that a student must have an unshakable foundation on the reliability and truthfulness of the Bible, and then be ready, willing, and able to face unbelievably strong opposition while pursuing a degree that will qualify them for the research positions they wish to obtain.

While none of this should dissuade students from choosing such a career, it is important for students and their parents to recognize the potential difficulties and take steps early to ensure a successful and victorious outcome.

For students wishing to be involved in the area of Creation Evangelism, such as speaking at churches or writing about creation related topics, Roger believes a Bachelor’s degree in some branch of science is important for establishing credibility. Several Christian colleges offer science programs, taught from a Young-Earth Creationist perspective, in which students can earn their Bachelor’s degrees. However, many Christian colleges have compromised in the area of origins and evolution, so this is something that should be carefully investigated when researching options for collegebound Creationist students.
Life is tough if you are anti-science but want a career in science. Not only are the secular universities trying to persuade you that truth is important in science but even some of the Christian colleges are "compromised."

But you can succeed if you resist education and maintain "unshakable foundation on the reliability and truthfulness of the Bible." Incredible.

What about average students who venture out into the secular world? What happens if they happen to pick up a book written by a (gasp!) real scientist, or if they mistakenly enter a real museum?

Roger Patterson of Answers in Genesis has some advice.
Homeschool parents often wonder how to protect their children from evolutionary ideas. We brought this up to Roger Patterson, a former biology teacher in a public school who is now one of the main content-developers at Answers in Genesis, and were impressed by his answer:

“As a ministry in general,” Roger explains, “we don’t say, ‘keep your kids isolated from evolutionary ideas.’We think that’s kind of a bad philosophy because when they do go out on their own, they’re going to face those things every day. Case in point: [my wife and I recently] got this space-age ant colony gel material. Flip open the book, and you’re reading through the instructions and all these fun facts about ants, [then] ‘Fossil ants have been found a hundred million years old.’ What we would hope parents can do through homeschooling is teach their kids how to spot those things, and then what the biblical response is for those things. Not to isolate them from those things, but to insulate them to some degree and then help them understand what the problems are there.

“Okay, this is a fun ant gel colony, [but] they didn’t need to throw that little tidbit [about millions of years] in there; it adds nothing to the product or your ability to enjoy and watch the ants. And when you look at it from the perspective that God created these creatures to do what they do, and it’s an amazing thing, it even gives an opportunity to give praise to God when you run across the idea of evolution. [We can say] ‘We know that’s not true. Praise God He did create us, that He is the one who’s sustaining all this.’ Rather than running away and hiding from all those things, let’s face up to it. And then if you’re with your friend, you can tell them about it if they don’t understand those things.

“So my encouragement is not to be afraid of going and getting the dinosaur book from the library, but [be sure to] teach your children as they go through it to understand that some parts [evolutionary statements] are made up, based on the idea of rejecting God in science, and other parts are facts—such as when it tells us what shape the egg was, what size it was, what food they probably ate. Those types of things, we can trust those; those are solid scientific ideas. It’s when we start adding our own assumptions into those things, and telling stories, that we run into trouble.”

Roger explains that there are certain “code words” that parents can teach their children to watch out for. Among these would be “millions or billions of years,” statements about kinds of animals changing into other kinds of animals, and questionable statements of what scientists “know.” Above all, Roger says, it’s important to make sure our children have a solid biblical foundation for
their education, and to help them stand firm on the full authority of scripture.
I can't imagine what it must be like to be constantly on the lookout for sneaky remarks about evolution and other scientific facts that challenge your religion. I can't imagine what it must be like to brainwash your kids into responding with, "We know that’s not true. Praise God He did create us, that He is the one who’s sustaining all this."

I not a huge fan of the idea that teaching your children to be Young Earth Creationists is a form of child abuse but there are times, like today, when Dennet and Dawkins seem to have a strong case.

Home schooling isn't always a good thing for children.


14 comments :

Anonymous said...

I'd prefer no-school rather than young earth homeschool...

Raytheist said...

Thanks for this post (and your others). Teaching evolution in classrooms (pro-science curriculum) is a frequent topic on my blog. One poster just commented that basic biology should be taught in schools, but not evolution. I don't know if she's a Young Earth Creationist, or just a regular Creationist, but we've been going round and round about this. I'll put a link to your post the next time I address this topic.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

I grew up in that environment, and I think it most certainly is child abuse. Actually, it's more like being raised in a cult, that cuts off outside influences and allows your brain to develop in strange ways.

Anonymous said...

"receiving failing grades merely for believing God created the universe"

Riiiight...because there are strict religious tests all over the place at secular universities.

*sigh*

Harry Martin said...

In our rural location we prefer home schooling over the poorer quality local schools, which is VERY low compared to the rest of the nation.

The curriculum is laced with Biblical and Creationist garbage. We just leave that part out during the instruction. Also we teach our kids to replace "God" with "Evolution", and everything just seems to work out better that way.

The home schooling courses would be terrific if they'd leave out the religion. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to find good quality home schooling courses that are not infected with religious crap.

Lucky for us, we have access to great museums and the Internet so we can dig up and supplement the kids training with facts.

We plan to bring home biology books from the local college when the kids are ready to learn more about evolution and biology.

It's certainly a battle to educate the neighbors in our area because they don't understand home schooling. They also don't understand why my eight and ten year old sons are two years ahead of their peers. My oldest son already has memorized every bird species in Wyoming and has a better inventory of bird knowledge than the best seasoned Audubon member in our area. Both my sons understand dinosaur and bird evolution.

Lastly, my sons are not social misfits as they go on regular field trips sponsored by the local schools where they do sports, fairs, and expeditions to the library with other "normal" kids.

They also get an earful of Larry's blog (from Dad) at the dinner table. ;-)

Larry Moran said...

Harry Martin says,

They also get an earful of Larry's blog (from Dad) at the dinner table. ;-)

Speaking of child abuse ... :-)

James F. McGrath said...

Please don't give such folks more credit than they are due! Anti-science they may be, but Biblical literalists they are not! You'll be hard-pressed to find a single one that believes in the dome said to hold up the waters above in Genesis 1 (some translations aimed at those who think they are supposed to be Biblical literalists translate away the problem by calling it an 'expanse' rather than a 'dome', and since most so-called literalists believe the English translation literally, problem solved!).

If they got exposure to the Bible and the scholarly study of it, and not just the handful of verses that can be interpreted to support their view of things, it might do more to cure them of their claims to "Biblical literalism" than all the scientific evidence in the world...

Anonymous said...

Christians who lie to their children about science need to be told they're guilty of child abuse and they need to be told they should be ashamed of themselves. Imagine being the victim of this mental abuse. There's no excuse for it and these parents deserve nothing but contempt.

Anonymous said...

If they got exposure to the Bible and the scholarly study of it, and not just the handful of verses that can be interpreted to support their view of things, it might do more to cure them of their claims to "Biblical literalism" than all the scientific evidence in the world...

I doubt that. In my experience, Evangelicals have no problem dismissing the work of those "liberal" scholars.

Matt Carter said...

I was definitely raised this way.

The thing is, that my parents actually did a good job of instilling a love of knowledge in me, and it didn't take long before I discovered the public library and I was addicted.

I wasn't even in junior high, and I was devouring books on dinosaurs, palaeontology, whatever the library had in it's science section that wasn't too over my head. The thing is, as a child it was easy to see that evolution had more evidence on its side than creationism, and this was before comparative genomics, or tiktaalik.

In order to raise a child as a certain young Earth creationist I think you would have to keep them away from any outside influences and possibly from reading anything that didn't come from the local Dove Christian Bookstore. I honestly think that the disparity between evolution and creation is such that even a child can tell which really is science.

Anonymous said...

"... it might do more to cure them of their claims to "Biblical literalism" than all the scientific evidence in the world...

I also have to disagree, having been one of those people for most of my life, surrounded by likeminded people. Anything I (we) didn't understand about the Bible I (we) just pulled out the "God's ways are mysterious and beyond our mortal understanding" loophole. The Bible was infallible. If reality, as percieved through my senses, contradicted the Bible, then reality was at fault. The Bible did not contradict itself. If it seemed to contradict itself, then my reasoning was at fault- for I was carnal, sold under sin, easily influenced by Satan the Devil.

These people are serious, and no amount of evidence or persuasive arguments will change their mind. Do do that they have to stop believing in their god, or at least come to a more liberal view of their god.

As for homeschooling, I will probably homeschool my children as well, for I can provide them with a much better (and interactive) education that the local public schools can. Plus, there is wood to be chopped and water to be drawn.


Paul

Anonymous said...

I'm a Christian and yet have been fully convinced about the reality of common descent. And yet, I still struggle with being completly open about it with my children, girls 5 and 7; both of whom devour facts about nature and ask questions non stop. I don't mind the millions and billions (I always make it clear when they ask about dinosaurs that they lived a long time before humans because they are easily scared about such things). This is no big deal to me as I actually grew up in a Christian home that thought likewise. (My wife, who grew up in an extremely dogmatic YEC home still isn't thrilled about this). But when it comes to human evolution things are more complicated, especially since we attend a conservative church where any teaching on the matter presents the creation story as fact. Since it has only been several years since I have realized the reality of our history, I don't yet know how to bridge the two constructively. Plus, I'm sort of in the closet about it all at my church. If I start teaching my children it would be only a matter of weeks before they started talking about it in Sunday school:) My girls ask too many questions, so eventually this will come up and they'll learn the truth, but I know even that will be hard. By that time they will have a good many peers from the church, all of which will have grown up in homes where evolution = evil and atheism.

My children go to public school. Hopefully they will receive a good science education there so at that point evolution will defiantly be on the table. I'm the only person in my church with children in public school who isn't irrationally afraid of that day.

Anonymous said...

Pete,

Just a few thoughts.

You write "But when it comes to human evolution things are more complicated, especially since we attend a conservative church where any teaching on the matter presents the creation story as fact." To me, you are saying that the complication isn't the science, but peer pressure from the church.

Could I ask if a solution would be to just to move to a new location? Your kids are a good age for this and the they will make new friends easily enough. There may be job and other family issues, but those things aside it would seem easiest to just move away from that church, since, as you were saying, they are the source of the conflict.

Regards "I'm the only person in my church with children in public school who isn't irrationally afraid of that day." I would suspect in reality you are probably not alone in that, just that no-one is openly saying so.

James F. McGrath said...

I can only speak from my own experience that I have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction when I've spoken openly about my views, even in contexts in which I expected there might be some hostility. In my own church there are certainly people who have a different opinion than I do, but there are also some who likewise thought they were the only ones thinking this way, and many who may instinctively follow another viewpoint but only because they've never really thought about the issue or heard a case for another viewpoint.

I'd encourage honesty, if and when you are ready to deal with any consequences there might be. Asking myself what to teach my own child was part of the equation too, since if we present things oversimplistically for too long, then children will often experience a crisis of faith where the transition to an adult view of things could have been a smoother one if they had been prepared for it.

Be prepared to answer questions and potential objections. I was glad to learn today that the TalkOrigins site seems to have returned. I also have a lot of material about evolution from a Christian perspective on my blog, which you may find helpful, as well as links on a site connected with a course I teach about religion and science.