Re: Teaching science/Christianity to middle schoolers

I was reading the outline thinking, "Doggone, this is pretty decent," when I came to a couple of questionable statements.

> Difficulties in arriving at truth:
> Past history is not directly observable
However, there are many means of cross-checking data from the past, and you would do well to emphasize this. One good source is Davis Young's book, "Christianity and the age of the earth".

> Geologic and fossil records are discontinuous
But there are also fairly complete examples of the development of some types of animals (horses and whales I believe). And regardless of the derision it attracts from the Henry Morrises of the world, I think punctuated equilibrium offers part of the answer to this criticism.
> Both scientists and theologians come to the discussion with many
> assumptions
Nothing wrong with this. However, you ought to emphasize holding assumptions in opposition to the data is not good science.
> Almost all mutations are harmful—was this always the case?
I think the creationists tend to think of mutations as being point changes that make a big difference. I suspect what is more likely is that populations diverge slowly simply by variations contained within their genomes, and that mutation when it comes is not likely a big change. It simply makes the two populations incapable of interbreeding. (better check this one with a biologist -- I'm (clearly) not one. Just an engineer who plays with genetic algorithms on occasion)
> Dating methods produce inconsistent results

Here I would challenge the producer of the outline to produce an example. My understanding is that when adequate precautions are taken (e.g. careful inspection of rocks to ensure they have not been contaminated by seepage -- see Davis Young's book) the various dating methods agree quite closely. I've been told by geologists that in most of the cases where discrepancies have been found careful investigation has uncovered what happened. And these findings have been published in the geology literature.
Received on Tue Mar 23 12:12:24 2004