As you state, published Christian curriculums have largely been prepared by
people of YEC persuasion. The basic elements of YEC are quite succinct.
It is fairly easy to outline it at any grade level. Also a certain sense
of being under siege motivates the Youth Earth school of thought. This
sense of being under siege is shared by many homeschoolers so it is an easy
match.
People who are persuaded that there is strong evident of deep age in the
earth and the universe have not arrived at any consensus that lends itself
to a succinct statement that could be formulated at various grade levels.
I teach at a Mennonite high school with patrons from dozens of
denominations and churches. The school has not adopted any position on
creation. The patrons come from various persuasions, but there is rarely
debate. The science department uses secular texts. That there are
different persuasions concerning how God created is acknowledged and
discussion ensues. Generally students from more fundamentalist
congregations express zeal for their position and students from reformed
and Anabaptists backgrounds are indifferent, maybe with some tacit
smugness, but with much greater concern for washing their cars than
understanding the mechanism of creation.
I also meet with many homeschoolers who most often use YEC oriented
curricula. I have not been interested in striving with my friends about
these things. In fact, we are commanded that the "servant of God must not
strive". If someone asks I am ready to give an answer. Do you ask? I
will give a short synopsis.
God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts, his ways then mine. My
perspective is extremely limited on creation. The scriptures describe
creation with a very few words that on first perusal appear to describe
recent history. In fact, anthropologists, historians, I guess everyone
interested agrees, that whatever we are as humanity has largely exploded in
the earth during the last 10000 or so years.
People get very sensitive about the details before that. There is a lot of
evidence concerning prehistoric flora and fauna. And rocks are amazing.
We consider rocks to be fairly eternal, but all rocks on the surface of the
earth breakdown. They had to be formed under very different conditions
than they occupy today. The growth of coral, the structure of some
sediments, the structure of many rocks speaks of deep, deep time. Looking
out across the cosmos it also speaks of deep time and space. We are so
small it is hard to entertain how deep time and space are.
When the Lord gives us insight into these things we will be amazed at what
is. Maybe also ashamed for our presumptuous speculation about some points,
somewhat like Job. Creation is glory to the creator. I think it has gone
through many changes through what compared to us would be deep time and
space. (At one time 20 billions years seemed like a long time to me, but
it does not anymore. If God used 20 billion year it has only been a
instant. 20 billion years does not enable anything to happen without God.
I also used to think 20 billion dollars was a lot of money. Today over a
trillion is transferred daily electronically in New York alone.)
I didn't give you anything easy to teach your children. Hope I have been
some little help. Be an example of those committed to God and truth. Your
children will learn from you more than any text.
>Hi. My wife is just beginning homeschooling our 5 year old. She's found a
>great Christian curriculum that is really effective for teaching him. The
>one problem is that the science portion is distinctly YEC, which is not what
>we wish to teach him. Granted, at this stage, he's only learning really
>basic stuff and we could modify the curriculum on the fly, but we'd like to
>replace that portion so that we have a program in place for the next several
>years. At any rate, I'm interested in any links, resources, curriculum, or
>sage advice regarding how to teach Theocentric non-YEC science. TIA.
>--
>Jeff Lee
>Carlsbad, California
>http://www.users.cts.com/king/c/cjlee/
>http://www.stmichaelsbythesea.org/
>Public Key: ftp://ftp.cts.com/users/king/c/cjlee/jal_key.txt
>______________________________________
>Lo! he comes to keep his word, Light and joy his looks impart;
>Go ye forth to meet your Lord, And meet him in your heart.
> -- John Wesley
Douglas Franks
1000 Forty Foot Rd
Lansdale, PA 19446
dfranks@principia.edu
215 362 2943 fax
215 721 4324 hm
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