I want to talk about why we need to avoid secular science textbooks. I’ve talked about worldview before but this topic came up again and this time it was at my church. How important is a Christian worldview when we are picking curriculum or educating our children; whether that’s in a homeschool environment or a Christian school? I can’t mention secular public schools cyber, or even alternate charter schools because most, if not all, are not teaching a Christian worldview at all. Let me give you a background here. After our church service was done there was a presentation about the localish (not entirely local to my area but the only non-Catholic Christian school option) Christian school. During the presentation it was mentioned how the school uses, for example, secular science books to teach their students about science in order to teach them the difference between worldviews. The idea here is that the teacher’s would be adding in Biblical principles as they come up. This is absolutely backwards if you want my opinion and if you don’t, than stop reading right now. It is far more appropriate to teach from a Christian worldview and include the secular ideas for comparison in order to equip your child for the world. I suspect one reason they choose to teach from a secular science book is solely based on college prep because if you do not intend on going to a Christian college and you are pursuing a career in the sciences you will be learning secular science which includes evolutionary theory presented as fact.
My once-upon-a-time career choice and ideas of furthering my education was in that of the medical field. I took all the science classes I could in high school and continued on that path into community college. For many reasons that path ended shortly after it began. I have no regrets. Clearly that is not where I was to be. I was not taught evolution in any amount that I can recall in any of my science classes in my Christian school. I did, electively, take “Creationism” class which did teach science from a Christian worldview and teach us about secular science ideas for comparison, similarly to the course I am doing with my children this school year which I reviewed in my Fall Update post. I am a firm believer that you can not properly teach/equip your Christian student/children from a secular text and “add in the Bible”. If you are familiar with anything from Answer’s in Genesis, I am totally on-board with what is shared from there. If not, but you are interested, please visit their website (I’m not affiliated with them, just really appreciate their ministry).
“There is no middle ground. Either education rests on a biblical perspective or it comes from man’s point of view. “
By Jim Davis, former Director of Product Development for BJU Press.
I whole-heartedly agree with the above statement. Compare that above quote with one below from a homeschool mom’s blog about why she chooses to teach secular science.
“As a Christian who holds Scripture to a high-standard I also realize there are many different interpretations out there. Personally, I’m not married to one specific interpretation of Genesis or the age of the earth. “
(Eclectic Homeschooling )
Unfortunately this mom’s blog post is not only how so many Christians think, but is very concerning. Her defense of her choice often made no sense and it’s of my opinion that she has a misguided view of the truth of God’s word. God’s word is truth. The scriptures are “God-breathed”. Man may have wrote the words, but they were inspired by the Almighty Creator to write them. If you don’t believe that, than I supposes its easier not to believe the Genesis account in it’s entirety. If you’re wavering on age of the Earth I would encourage you to research the studies by many Christian scientists who use the Bible as their foundation. These people choose to go to the Bible first and see how it might, or might not fit into man’s ideas of science and not the other way around. It’s never correct to take man’s view and cram it into the Scriptures and try to make it fit. People refute the Bible as a history book or even that of a science book. Science may not be mentioned, but we can learn much from the Bible that pertains to science. You need not look far to ascertain the age of the Earth as according to scripture. There are far too many details for me to discuss in this blog. Start HERE and continue your search for truth and please keep your Bible with you while you do so. Consider the following. (Incidentally, my children and I are learning about many of these men in our history book, “Streams of Civilization”)
” If science is a strictly secular endeavor without any need for a biblical worldview, then why were most fields of science developed by Bible-believing Christians? For example, consider Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Johann Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, Blaise Pascal, Michael Faraday, James Joule, Joseph Lister, and James Clerk Maxwell. Were these “greats” of science not doing science? Francis Bacon developed the scientific method, and he was a young-earth creationist and devout Christian. “
From Answers in Genesis
I find it difficult to reach any other conclusion than this, that one much teach science from a Christian worldview if the school, the parent, and the students are in fact Christian. The idea that they need to learn secular science in order to go out into the world is backwards. They need to know a Christian worldview of science to go out into the secular science world. That is true equipping, that should be the foundation. There is nothing wrong with learning secular science, even evolutionary theories, but from a Christian worldview perspective and not the other way around. It would be immensely time consuming, as I stated in my last post about this, for a teacher or parent to add in Biblical principles to a non-Christian text. You would spend so much time refuting your text book that it hardly seems worth the while and that is where things can go very wrong. Here’s an article from BJU Press that talks more in depth about this topic. (Note, I didn’t get my information or understanding from this article, it’s just another place for you to consider what I am saying. I don’t actually use any BJU Press materials in my homeschool)
” It is God’s Word, not humanist (that is, atheist) dogma, that teaches us how to make sense of the past and the present. We can better understand how the universe works and how it came into existence, if we start by trusting the words of the One who made it. That is the only “appropriate” message for children. “
Do Creationists Reject Science? This article is very informative with such statements as, ” The classroom is exactly where the evolutionary model should be taught. In fact, we believe that when students are taught evolution—with all its flaws—they are better equipped to understand the bias each scientist carries and better able to understand the differences between operational and origins science. After all, students will encounter Darwinism when they turn on the TV or go through a museum, etc.; it’s important that they understand the theory and the faith behind it. “
Answers in Genesis
The above quote is not to say that we should be teaching from a secular worldview and try to add in Biblical ideas. It’s actually the opposite. This statement is actually referring to public school classrooms where creationism is not taught at all but evolution is. If your child does not get a good foundation how will they ever be able to defend their faith and speak the truth of our creator? Everyone needs to make a choice that best fits their family. For my children I was becoming increasingly more uncomfortable with the things they were learning, how far away from Biblical they were, while attending public school. Still, I drug my feet out of sheer fear of how in the world I was ever going to manage to teach them at home. God showed me how and praise him that there are so many wonderful curriculum publishers out there to support us.