Parents, It’s Time to Teach Our Kids Evolution!

Confession: I haven’t used any creationist science materials in my kids’ science classes. We use Usborne, DK, and other secular humanistic books. [Edited Jan. 2016: we now use a mix of both]

Why? Because we have nothing to fear from evolutionary thinking if and when it is exposed for the limited mindset it really is.

I’ve also experienced the consequences of waiting for the world to introduce our young people in its own time and way.

My siblings and I grew up using some of the few Christian homeschooling materials available at the time. The only exposure we had to evolution was a brief introduction to the discarded idea of inherited traits eventually producing completely new organisms. Other than that, we were only taught observational science and a little Flood geology.

The popular idea at the time was that people were trained to recognize counterfeit money by handling real currency so much they would recognize fakes instantly and reject them. Therefore, we should do the same for our kids.

But it doesn’t work.

Far too often, the first time a young person from such an environment hears the Enemy’s carefully packaged lies, they fall for them hook, line, and sinker. It happened to some of my siblings. It can just as easily happen to our kids.

This is also a classic definition of indoctrination.

Here’s the analogy I prefer to use:

Various cells that participate in immune functions.

Training up children is a lot like developing the immune system. You want your kids to run into dangerous ideas as soon as they can safely handle them. You just carefully control the way they are introduced.

I don’t just hand those Evolutionary science books to my 8 year olds. I sit down with them and read them together.

• We discuss how they talk as if they were there, when no one but God actually was
• We look at how they skip over the impossible parts, like Spontaneous Generation
• We talk about how fossils actually only tell us how deeply they were buried
• We learn how genetics allow for lots of variation, but not creating completely different organisms
• We examine what the Uniformitarians must believe to avoid seeing how quickly rocks/fossils can be formed

Then we study what God (the only eye witness) said He did in Genesis and other places. He told us how He spoke, used logic (John 1:1), stretched the universe out, and created living things “after their kinds“.

We also look at how God rested after the Six Days of Creation. God isn’t doing the same kind of creative work in the world today. Instead, He uses natural laws. Scientists can study what goes on today because of these rules. We can rely on an experiment to work today like it did last year (all things being equal).

But we can’t take what we see today and assume it was like that from the beginning of time.

Then we look at The Big Picture:

We learn the reasons people refuse to consider anything outside of nature being real. We learn how it was Bible rejecting (not necessarily atheistic) scientists who started the West on the path to denying God’s role as Creator.

We look at what the world would actually be like if the Evolutionary Secular Humanism was right. Why are we here? Where are we going? What’s the point of living? (For more, sign up for my emails on the right to get the PDF talking about these issues).

We study what the Scripture says about itself and talk about what would happen to Jesus and the Bible with Genesis explained away.

Am I afraid for my kids? No. Do I pray God will guard their hearts and minds? Oh, yes. But God’s Word is true. Nature declares its Maker’s praise when we look at it clearly.

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Psalm 145:3,4

For further study:

Answers in Genesis: Victory Begins at Home

Parents—Don’t Leave Teaching to the Church

Creation Ministries International has a whole Parent’s Corner

Dr. Jay Wile understands this concept. Here’s what he’s found: A College Education Makes You MORE LIKELY To Retain Your Faith:

The vast majority of intellectual and scientific data support a belief in a personal God. Thus, it is not surprising to me that the more people learn, the more likely they are to remain engaged in their faith!