Lizzie Henderson | Different Kinds of I Don’t Know

Kids ask a lot of questions. When those questions come to hard topics about science and faith it can be tempting to dismiss them or brush them off or to think they are too young to engage with the questions. But often this shows children that their questions are not welcome and that their curiosity is dangerous.

Lizzie Henderson of The Faraday Institute and Faith Stults both work on developing resources for children to engage in the science and faith conversation and they sit down to talk about ways to encourage questions and creativity so that children can grow up with the tools to explore hard concepts without fear and without the thought that they must choose between faith and science.

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This is a non-issue in Britain.

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Rejoice and be glad!
It never has been a question for me, thank God! It wasn’t something my parents remotely cared about, and it hadn’t infultrated the churches like it has now, at least in urban and suburban areas. I was also tainted early by my hippie teachers and liberal government education, I have been given to understand.
Some of my friends and relatives who are 15-20 years younger than me have grown up in a very different church culture. As irritating as it must be to hear so many accomodations for people living here, there are masses of people trying to figure things out and hold faith together. In the meantime, there is an ever-growing reactionary movement pushing harder for tighter corsets of all types.
I’m sure it’s hard to believe that not everything here is insane. I really believe we haven’t all gone over the edge. Seems like a time of huge transition, but that’s my extremely limited perspective though.
So, I think it’s necessary for parents, in particular, to be given an awareness that it’s ok not to have all the answers, that it’s even good and healty. A lot of Christians here have not understood their liberty to hold ideas in tension or even think freely in the least. They have a lot to learn, particularly, if they have been trained to think that faithfulness to Christ is somehow tied to having all the (YEC, hyper-conservative) answers, etc. They are trying to decouple things that never should have been together, but that they have been trained to think are dependent on each other.
I’m grateful that there are parts of the church and the world that just have never had to deal with this. Some of us are looking around to see what other people are doing.

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Did you listen? Lizzie at Cambridge with Faraday Institute. It is not actually as much of a non-issue as many think, as many curriculums for children still promote young earth, even if off-hand and not staunchly.

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Sorry? In curriculums in the UK? At which schools?

Not schools, but education in church for young kids.

She said many kids still inherently think science and faith can’t go together. It’s the very first thing they address “whether the issue is the same in the UK.” listen or read the transcript if you like :rofl:

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Not necessary. So what, which UK church ‘curricula’ are teaching YEC to how many kids? Sunday school Bible stories about Noah?

Yes high school students are often surprised to find out their physics teacher believes in God if the issue comes up. They suppose as a person of science I must be anti-religion.

Vinnie

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Good grief. Either listen to the podcast that is the topic of this thread, an interview with someone quite familiar with the situation in schools and churches in the UK, or don’t, but don’t refuse to be educated on the issue by someone who knows the answers and then immediately ask questions of people who wouldn’t know the answers.

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Haven’t they listened to it? Maybe I should bug my CoE church Sunday kids group? Nobody I know in non-American Christendom, which is a huge network, has ever mentioned YEC subversion. Tell you what, I’ll ask.

Well yes I listened to it, but not any more knowledgeable about the landscape than the listener…Which Is why i told you to listen and/or read the transcript and told you where you could find where she addressed conflicting ideas. It isn’t necessarily that they are teaching falsehoods, but that because there is a range of views, people will brush off questions, which teaches kids that maybe they should stop asking those kinds of questions.

You admitted in another podcast thread that you don’t listen to them or read, so if you don’t actually want to contribute to the conversation that people had on the podcast, I’d like to ask you to refrain from commenting.

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When I have to wade through 31 pages of transcript to get to any substance at all, no I’m not keen. I did for love on another thread. I really don’t understand just posting links and not propositions, quotes.

This Forum exists primarily to be a discussion/comment board for the content BioLogos publishes, or in other words, for “posting links not propositions.” The fact that bored retired guys can use the forum as their primary social outlet while essentially ignoring everything BioLogos publishes is an unintended side effect.

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Sharper than a hound’s tooth. If I may, that might be the primary motive coming down from the mountain, but it sure as apples isn’t in the discussion/comment coming back up, as in the oesophagus
: ) Shall I quantify that? And my part time workload has increased from 10 (call it 20 easily) to 31 (call it…) hours a week a few weeks ago, so that should limit me. Should…

As I said I waded through a publication recently and my conclusion wasn’t changed one iota. If you insist I’ll wade through this one. And what’s the betting on the iota?

Podcasts did used to include discussion questions, but nobody responded to them. So it became more of an exercise in Return on Investment for the small staff that works on the Forum & also does all other marketing and social media for this organization (me). If people will comment on a podcast because they listened and have their own insights, I don’t need to steer the conversation.

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why do kids have a strict faith doctrine that the children would not even have questions regarding the world in which they reside now that seems a little hard to believe there as Curiosity is healthy, as is asking lots of questions. Both spur development and growth .i am in no way tring to judge your British culture although i do find that parenting theory off base faith is not just expressed in love sorry for bursting your bubble

Indupitably.

Lucky you. For many UK Christian churches, YEC is a big deal. Perhaps, not to the extent where it is the fluoride in the drinking water as in some US churches, but it is still there. And yet for many other UK churches, it is no issue at all.

I find one’s perception of what is or isn’t an issue for the UK church is largely dependent on the church tribe one affiliates with. For example, for many of the Christians I work with, social action is a huge priority and evangelism is not, yet for many of those whom I go to church with evangelism is a huge priority and social action is not. But then my colleagues and my fellow church goes are drawn from two very different tribes.

If we want a full picture of the challenges facing the church in the UK (or anywhere else), we’re probably going to have to spend some time in the neighbouring tribes from time to time. If anything, just to remind ourselves that ours isn’t the only tribe.

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Honestly I never read any rules when I joined so I didn’t realize and figured not acting a jerk would carry the day. While I sometimes post in response to a podcast or article, I more often post about what I’m reading, creation photos or humor.

Guilty again except for ignoring everything BioLogos publishes. I just joined Senior Forums to check out retired options but almost entirely chit chat or practical. Real discussion is hard to find as is discussion about what you think matters. What to do?

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Don’t have to wade but also don’t have to post off topic in a thread you aren’t interested to know more about except second hand. Neither should anyone who is interested have to wade through offhand remarks about how you feel about what you suppose it is about.

You’re giving the retired guys a bad rap.

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