Can't teach that in this school
Years ago a well known private Christian academy in my area invited me to be a guest lecturer; I accepted. They wanted me to speak on the subject of creation and evolution. Why did they ask me to teach on that subject? They knew I was a geologist with an advanced degree and that I was an elder in a local church; I had the right pedigree. In addition, they knew I had been attending the local Creation Science Fellowship chapter for a number of years. Perfect! So I met with the headmaster to go over final preparation for a three-day lecture series. At the meeting I was handed an outline and a couple of textbooks. "This is what I want you to teach our students", he said.
I browsed through some of the well-illustrated material published by the Creation Science Institute: the earth is young, less than 10,000 years old...the entire sedimentary geologic column is the direct result of Noah's Flood...humans and dinosaurs walked the earth together; we've seen their side-by-side footprints in rocks in Texas...evolution is a scheme of the devil...God created the earth and the cosmos with the appearance of great age...you can't be an evolutionist and say you are a Christian. Wow! I told the headmaster I would be glad to teach this Creation Science perspective, as long as I could give equal time to the position accepted by most scientists: the earth is billions of years old...I accept Noah's Flood, but not as the sole means to create the geologic column...there is zero scientific evidence to support the co-existence of humans and dinosaurs... evolution is more than just a theory perpetrated by the devil...many scientists who are Christians can support various levels of evolution. After all, once these students were in college, they would get a full plate of evolutionary teaching, especially macro-evolution; we should at least let them know what to expect from university professors.
The headmaster looked disappointed. "We are committed to teach our students science that supports God's creation as reported in Genesis, he said, we don't want to pollute these young minds with false theories such as evolution". I told him I would be intellectually dishonest if I didn't present a balanced story. He thanked me for my time, then disinvited me. This encounter had a profound affect on me. I began to realize how deeply Creation Science curriculum had penetrated our Christian schools and home school curriculum. Creation Science may seem harmless, but thousands of disillusioned students have fallen away from the Faith in college when they discover the rest of the world accepts evolution. Perhaps this is why I'm passionate about the subject, and the reason for writing Countdown To Adam.
