I'm writing a series of stories (with the Lord's help) that focus on the way Christian teens face the many issues in our society today. My first story takes place in a very small town in North Carolina, where the son of a preacher has been teased at school, and his father recently addressed the local school board about putting stickers into the science textbooks. Because of this, the father's picture appeared in the local weekly newspaper, along with an article about the meeting. His son is afraid this will make matters worse for him. The following is a dinnertime conversation between the father and his two sons, Randy and Martin.
If you don't mind, please look over the argument the father is making here, and let me know if there is a way I can make it stronger, or if any of the information is wrong. Please remember that this is a dinnertime conversation with a 15-year-old boy, so it must flow naturally and not get too deep.
(Note: the father's argument is from a Creationists point of view, so comments saying that creationism is false don't help me with the scene. Thanks!)
Thanks!
Diana
**********
Whats the big deal anyway, Dad? he asked. Why cant the school teach evolution? What if God just used evolution to create everything? Cant the Bible and evolution both be true?
His father paused before answering. Those are good questions, Son. Lets take a look at them. You have to consider whether there is sufficient evidence for evolution. Your textbook actually presents evidence that has been discredited. Macro evolution involved the change from one species to another, like from lizards to birds or apes to man. It turns out, though, that there is no fossil evidence to support that theory at all. You would expect to see transitional species, like lizards with wing-like appendages rather than forelegs, and there just arent any.
Randy was a little sorry hed asked. Across from him, Martin was rapt.
Your textbook has pictures of different stages of development for man. What the book doesnt tell you is that those artists renditions are based on only fragmentary evidence. In one case, nothing more than a single tooth. But those fossils could be different extinct ape species, or something else altogether. The tooth they found turned out to be the tooth of a pig! Conversely, when you look at the DNA structure of individual species, and observe that it is stable from one generation to the next
Each one after its kind, Martin put in.
Right. You look at that, and you find clear evidence against macro evolution. The mathematical odds against so many beneficial mutations to the DNA structure, that would cause a lizard to become a bird, are virtually impossible. And remember that the scientists of Darwins time couldnt study DNA. We didnt discover DNA until the 1950s. So although Darwins theory might have been a good theory explaining origins a hundred years ago, it isnt now. Do you understand so far?
I guess
Martin was nodding and chewing.
Now, survival of the fittest, and micro evolution, those things do happen. Micro evolution is why you have wolves and fox terriers, but both of them are canines, and they can interbreed. But you cant interbreed lizards and birds. The DNA is completely different. Natural selection accounts for the extinction of some species and the rise of others. But there is no evidence to support the evolution of one species to another.
He paused to eat, then continued.
Obviously, its a lot more complicated than that. Ive got some books you boys should look at. It might not be a huge issue for you now, but it could be when you get into college.
Randy had no intentions of letting this be an issue for him, in high school or in college. If they insisted upon teaching it, fine. Hed learn enough to get a grade and then move on with his life. So much of what he learned was like that anyway. His life would not be impacted if he forgot how to diagram a sentence, or the date of the French-American war, or how to solve complex algebraic equations. But
Mom said people do bad things, like walk away from their faith, because of evolution, he said.
Thats true. Because evolution says that all life on earth began with single cells in the primordial soup. It makes life on earth the result of time, plus matter, plus chance. That means, no God.
But couldnt God have started the change? Why couldnt it be time plus matter plus God?
Because, again, the fossil evidence does not support that idea. However, if there was evidence for evolution, it would be as you said because life cannot come from non-life, and matter does not create itself. These are scientific principles, Randy. The problem is some people automatically see them as arguments for God, and they invoke separation of church and state.
Why does evolution cause people to do bad things?
It doesnt, directly. Its just a theory of origins. But it prompts other philosophies that remove God. Without God, there is no judgment. Without judgment, maybe we can do whatever we want to do. So values are redefined. It could be argued that Darwins theories, along with the writing of Neitchze, contributed to a kind of social Darwinism, survival of the fittest, upholding the ubermeinch, or superman, the forced evolution of a perfect race, that undergirded Hitlers ideas and caused the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Wow, Martin said.
Randy thought it made sense, but he couldnt understand why the textbooks would still have evolution in them if there was evidence against it. And, his fathers justification for the yellow stickers did nothing to solve the problem that he was facing; being called Preacher Boy.
So what can I do about being teased?
Just keep being yourself, his mother said. Your friends liked you before, they will come back. Those who dont thats their loss.
Right, Randy thought. That makes it all better.
If you don't mind, please look over the argument the father is making here, and let me know if there is a way I can make it stronger, or if any of the information is wrong. Please remember that this is a dinnertime conversation with a 15-year-old boy, so it must flow naturally and not get too deep.
(Note: the father's argument is from a Creationists point of view, so comments saying that creationism is false don't help me with the scene. Thanks!)
Thanks!
Diana
**********
Whats the big deal anyway, Dad? he asked. Why cant the school teach evolution? What if God just used evolution to create everything? Cant the Bible and evolution both be true?
His father paused before answering. Those are good questions, Son. Lets take a look at them. You have to consider whether there is sufficient evidence for evolution. Your textbook actually presents evidence that has been discredited. Macro evolution involved the change from one species to another, like from lizards to birds or apes to man. It turns out, though, that there is no fossil evidence to support that theory at all. You would expect to see transitional species, like lizards with wing-like appendages rather than forelegs, and there just arent any.
Randy was a little sorry hed asked. Across from him, Martin was rapt.
Your textbook has pictures of different stages of development for man. What the book doesnt tell you is that those artists renditions are based on only fragmentary evidence. In one case, nothing more than a single tooth. But those fossils could be different extinct ape species, or something else altogether. The tooth they found turned out to be the tooth of a pig! Conversely, when you look at the DNA structure of individual species, and observe that it is stable from one generation to the next
Each one after its kind, Martin put in.
Right. You look at that, and you find clear evidence against macro evolution. The mathematical odds against so many beneficial mutations to the DNA structure, that would cause a lizard to become a bird, are virtually impossible. And remember that the scientists of Darwins time couldnt study DNA. We didnt discover DNA until the 1950s. So although Darwins theory might have been a good theory explaining origins a hundred years ago, it isnt now. Do you understand so far?
I guess
Martin was nodding and chewing.
Now, survival of the fittest, and micro evolution, those things do happen. Micro evolution is why you have wolves and fox terriers, but both of them are canines, and they can interbreed. But you cant interbreed lizards and birds. The DNA is completely different. Natural selection accounts for the extinction of some species and the rise of others. But there is no evidence to support the evolution of one species to another.
He paused to eat, then continued.
Obviously, its a lot more complicated than that. Ive got some books you boys should look at. It might not be a huge issue for you now, but it could be when you get into college.
Randy had no intentions of letting this be an issue for him, in high school or in college. If they insisted upon teaching it, fine. Hed learn enough to get a grade and then move on with his life. So much of what he learned was like that anyway. His life would not be impacted if he forgot how to diagram a sentence, or the date of the French-American war, or how to solve complex algebraic equations. But
Mom said people do bad things, like walk away from their faith, because of evolution, he said.
Thats true. Because evolution says that all life on earth began with single cells in the primordial soup. It makes life on earth the result of time, plus matter, plus chance. That means, no God.
But couldnt God have started the change? Why couldnt it be time plus matter plus God?
Because, again, the fossil evidence does not support that idea. However, if there was evidence for evolution, it would be as you said because life cannot come from non-life, and matter does not create itself. These are scientific principles, Randy. The problem is some people automatically see them as arguments for God, and they invoke separation of church and state.
Why does evolution cause people to do bad things?
It doesnt, directly. Its just a theory of origins. But it prompts other philosophies that remove God. Without God, there is no judgment. Without judgment, maybe we can do whatever we want to do. So values are redefined. It could be argued that Darwins theories, along with the writing of Neitchze, contributed to a kind of social Darwinism, survival of the fittest, upholding the ubermeinch, or superman, the forced evolution of a perfect race, that undergirded Hitlers ideas and caused the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Wow, Martin said.
Randy thought it made sense, but he couldnt understand why the textbooks would still have evolution in them if there was evidence against it. And, his fathers justification for the yellow stickers did nothing to solve the problem that he was facing; being called Preacher Boy.
So what can I do about being teased?
Just keep being yourself, his mother said. Your friends liked you before, they will come back. Those who dont thats their loss.
Right, Randy thought. That makes it all better.
