March 8th, 2013
by Max Andrews
Reblogged from The Atlantic.
More Christian parents are asking for mainstream science in their children’s curricula. Will religious textbook companies deliver?
For homeschooling parents who want to teach their children that the earth is only a few thousand years old, the theory of evolution is a lie, and dinosaurs coexisted with humans, there is no shortage of materials. Kids can start with the Answers in Genesis curriculum, which features books such as Dinosaurs of Eden, written by Creation Museum founder Ken Ham. As the publisher’s description states, “This exciting book for the entire family uses the Bible as a ‘time machine’ to journey through the events of the past and future.”
It’s no secret that the majority of homeschooled children in America belong to evangelical Christian families. What’s less known is that a growing number of their parents are dismayed by these textbooks.
Take Erinn Cameron Warton, an evangelical Christian who homeschools her children. Warton, a scientist, says she was horrified when she opened a homeschool science textbook and found a picture of Adam and Eve putting a saddle on a dinosaur. “I nearly choked,” says the mother of three. “When researching homeschooling curricula, I found that the majority of Christian homeschool textbooks are written from this ridiculous perspective. Once I saw this, I vowed never to use them.” Instead, Warton has pulled together a curriculum inspired partly by homeschool pioneer Susan Wise Bauer and partly by the Waldorf holistic educational movement.
Continue reading the original story from The Atlantic…
Posted in Christianity, Culture, Evolution | No Comments »
May 7th, 2012
by Max Andrews
Magnetic monopoles are extremely massive particles carrying a net magnetic charge, which is a result of predictions made by all the grand unified theories. By combining the grand unified theories with non-inflation scenarios the expected age of the universe is no longer 13.73 billion years old and it becomes about 30,000 years old. Inflation eliminates these monopoles by arranging the parameters so that inflation takes place after or during monopole production, so the monopole density is diluted to a completely negligible level.[1]
Perhaps creationists can use this in an argument for a young universe. Has anyone heard it be used?
Posted in Cosmology | 5 Comments »
May 1st, 2012
by Max Andrews
Einstein’s GTR [and aspects of STR] has made incredible contributions to natural theology.[1] Given the fixed speed of light, that nothing can travel faster than light, and the billions of light-years separation between the earth and other stars, it follows that the universe is billions of years old.[2] This has created a problem for young-earth creationists.[3] Current estimations for the age of the universe have been set at 13.73±2 billion years old. Young-earth creationists have adopted three main approaches: (1) embrace a fictitious history of the universe in the spirit of Philip Gosse’s 1857 work Omphalos; (2) view the speed of light as having decayed over time; and/or (3) interpret Einstein’s GTR so that during an “ordinary day as measured on earth, billions of years worth of physical processes take place in the distant cosmos.”[4]
read more »
Posted in Cosmology, Science, Science and Religion | 10 Comments »
February 21st, 2012
by Max Andrews
Scientific theories should not have religious import. This may certain have tensions with Augustinian science but religious import is much more than mere metaphysical import. Religious belief imports something that is considered to be internally authoritative (as in within that system of belief–though I don’t believe it will ever conflict). The applicability of some of the beliefs may be universal but using religious belief as a grid for interpreting what is and what is not science is methodologically irresponsible. Religious belief is not itself scientific but may have scientific beliefs and in sync with science. There’s a categorical difference.
For instance, using Scripture to interpret science or empirical data is circular in its reasoning. Scripture would already have the conclusion and then uses the reasoning process to conclude with that Scripture may be advocating. Since I’m coming from a religious perspective I would argue that science and Scripture are harmonious and congruent. It’s necessary to have a scientific understanding of nature and agency prior to interpreting Scripture.
read more »
Posted in Philosophy, Science, Science and Religion | 1 Comment »
February 15th, 2012
by Max Andrews
Posted in Cosmology, Science, Science and Religion | 2 Comments »
February 1st, 2012
by Max Andrews
There are four literal interpretations of YOM (the Hebrew word for day). The four definitions are (1) a portion of the daylight hours (2) the entire daylight segment of a twenty-four-hour day, (3) a twenty-four-hour day, and (4) a long but finite time period.[1] Unlike the modern Hebrew and English, biblical Hebrew had no other word for a finite era or epoch. The figure of speech of “a day is like a thousand years” in 2 Pt. isn’t an issue, it’s a simile; I don’t advocate that 2 Peter permits and old earth interpretation in Genesis. The four definitions of YOM are literal definitions; it’s unnecessary to say it’s non-literal. Also, the issue of a numerical adjective in front of YOM, there is no such rule or law in Hebrew grammar that necessitates that YOM following a numerical adjective must be the twenty-four-hour interpretation of YOM. The divisions of the days are “evening and morning” which signifies a division between the period of time (you’re going to have a hard time taking the text “literally” if you want to say there was evening and morning without a sun to make the distinguishing nature of evening and morning…).[2] Even YEC’s must concede that the first three days of evening and morning are not used in the sense of referring to solar rotations, merely a division of time). William Wilson, in his Old Testament Word Studies, explains that YOM is “frequently put for a time in general, or for a long time; a whole period under consideration… Day [YOM] is also put for a particular season or time when any extraordinary event happens.”[3] This is completely consistent with a kairological (differing from a chronological reading in that [Gr. kairos] it is a point of time specific to an event) reading of Genesis 1 as advocated by William Dembski in The End of Christianity.
read more »
Posted in Bible, Biblical Studies, Theology | 13 Comments »
February 1st, 2012
by Max Andrews
The following is a review I did of Bill Dembski’s The End of Christianity a couple of years ago.
The book was a fairly light read, easy to get through, yet deep and informative at the same time. I would recommend this to those who are somewhat familiar with modern cosmology, geology, and theological exegesis. If you are an adamant young earth creationist you will either dislike this book or be engaged to find more answers (which ultimately he believes to be untenable). To state the theodicy in a nutshell, both natural and personal/moral evil is a result of the Fall and God acted in anticipatory manner, though retroactively, to show the gravity of sin. I appreciate Dembski’s attempts to reconcile evil with sin and to exalt God’s grace and glory in the midst of suffering and evil.
read more »
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Philosophy, Problem of Evil, Theology | 6 Comments »
February 1st, 2012
by Max Andrews
The young earth creationist interpretation is internally inconsistent; it just doesn’t make sense. Both earth and life exist before the sun, moon, and stars. This leaves a person to wonder where heat, light, gravity, and earth’s rotation and orbital features came from prior to the fourth creation day. Let’s look at the sixth day. How in the world did Adam do so much? Here’s a list of the events of day six:
- God creates the various living creatures along with wild animals and animals that become domesticated [nephesh/soulish creatures] (Genesis 1:24-25).
- God creates Adam in the divine image (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7).
- God gives Adam a mandate of dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28).
- God makes the plants available as a food source for man (Genesis 1:29-30).
- God plants a garden and puts the man in it (Genesis 2:8).
- God gives Adam instruction concerning obedience to God’s specific commands (Genesis 2:9, 16-17).
- God commissions Adam to cultivate the garden (Genesis 2:15).
- God commissions Adam to name or classify the animals (Genesis 2:19-20).
- God declares Adam’s need for a suitable helper (Gen. 2:18, 20).
- God induces sleep and performs surgery on Adam (Genesis 2:21).
- God creates Eve (Genesis 2:22).
- God ordains that Adam and Eve enter into a divinely constituted marriage relationship (Genesis 2:23-25).
read more »
Posted in Bible, Biblical Studies, Evolution, Science and Religion, Theology | 20 Comments »
February 1st, 2012
by Max Andrews
To answer the question, “Is it surprising that scientific evidence supports a young earth perspective?” I would respond saying that I would almost consider this a loaded question. I don’t think I can find no evidence for a young earth; however, I find the record of nature to support the proposition that the universe is old (billions of years) by overwhelming evidence. There is hardly any evidence for a young earth, if indeed there is any at all.
Before getting to the geologic record of nature one needs to address the cosmological record of nature (the earth cannot be older than the universe). I initially gained my interest in cosmology (and I must say I really enjoy discussing cosmology) was the Kalam cosmological argument, which is an apologetic argument for a beginning of the universe.[1] I’ll put aside the mathematical and philosophical arguments for a beginning of the universe for that would be off topic and I’ll stick with the scientific evidence. If one were to analyze an extrapolation of space and time then that initial singularity for the universe would take us back 13.73 GYA (giga, billion years ago). There are many models of the universe such as the steady state, oscillating, quantum fluctuation, and other string theory models that coincide with former.[2] The most prominent model with the most philosophical, mathematical, and scientific evidence is the standard model (due to cosmic inflation, the big bang). Prominent cosmologist Paul Davies comments,
read more »
Posted in Bible, Biblical Studies, Cosmology, Science, Science and Religion, Theology | 18 Comments »
January 31st, 2012
by Max Andrews
There’s that one question that has plagued Christians on anthropological origins. Many young earth creationists claim there cannot be any gaps in the genealogy, which is what leads us to dating the time frame of the earth being young. Old earth creationists, like myself, believe that there are gaps in the genealogy. The question is whether it explains anything at all and how much does it explain?
The genealogies are adequate but not complete. No matter how you read the genealogies, you must concede that there are gaps. For example Mt. 1.8:
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah.
However, 1 Chron. 3.10-12 reads it differently:
Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, Jehoram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah [also called Uzziah] his son.
read more »
Posted in Bible, Biblical Studies, Theology | 5 Comments »
