I am a Catholic homeschooling parent. My oldest is about to begin 6th grade, and we are looking for a good middle school science curriculum. Many of the Christian programs we have found are expressly and aggressively young earth creationist. Do you know if any sound curricula that are both supportive of the approach to understanding evolution in the light of faith?
Kolbe is Catholic and not young earth as I understand it, though Iâm not sure how deeply they delve into evolution before high school. They use mainstream science textbooks.
I used CPO Life Science and added the âapproach to understanding evolution in light of faithâ on my own.
We also enjoyed this book, which is geared to middle school: New Book for Middle School Students: Science Geek Sam and his Secret Logbook - Article - BioLogos
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We also use CPO science for middle school. Itâs the best Iâve found. Iâve also begun adding some Charlotte Mason / Waldorf style nature and art notebooks alongside it, so for example on one side my child will draw a diagram from the textbook in their own artistic style, and on the opposite side they can write a few notes (narrations) or vocabulary words. I donât think there exists a curricula that will approach science in a pro-evolution way and also in the light of faith. There is certainly a need for something like that.
The reason there isnât one is because EC doesnât propose a different take on the science. So there is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to science textbooks. The reason YEC folks need to write their own textbooks is because they are making up their own science and editing out a good deal of consensus science.
For EC parents it comes down to teaching kids how to approach the Bible and its interpretation in a way that doesnât set up an inherent conflict between scientific claims and theological claims. But that kind of thing fits more under a Bible class than a biology class. BioLogos is developing a worldview supplement to use with intro to biology in high school. Iâll keep everyone posted on when it becomes available.
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Oh that is amazing to hear. I canât wait for it to be available. There very much needs to be more for Bible/worldview from an EC standpoint. I myself am struggling, big time. With my faith and with how to teach my kids doctrine. There are some resources, but itâs still not quite enough⌠most of whatâs available is too complicated or not the right format. Iâve been going through all of John Waltonâs books but many of them go over the head of my friends/family and itâs hard to explain things to them. Things I donât even fully understand myself, to be honest. It seems like every time I figure something out, there are two more obstacles in itâs place and just more questions. Being raised YEC I now find myself second guessing everything I thought I knew and understood about doctrine. One of our friends lost their young baby suddenly this week and they are Christians (I know most everyone at that church is YEC). They are so firm in their beliefs and on heaven and how things work, I wish I had that same assurance now but Iâm just not sure about everything anymore. I am finding myself overwhelmed with grief and little hope. My faith used to be so strong and now I just donât know for sure about a lot of it. I believe there are good answers out there, Iâm clinging to that. I am trying to understand things. I could go on and on. Glad for BioLogos. I almost feel like there should be rehab for ex-YECâers or something. It has been quite a rollercoaster for both my head and heart so far.
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Praying for you. Hope is hard to cling to sometimes, for sure.
Pete Enns and Rachel Held Evans have a lot of good stuff on their websites for people reconstructing their deconstructed faith. Itâs not for everyone, but it helps some people a lot. https://peteenns.com/
https://rachelheldevans.com/
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I would agree with you about the ârehabâ thing. It can be so hard to figure everything out, especially when friends and family all around are still strongly YEC. Itâs also hard to know which things I even need to figure out, and which I can just put on the back burner for now, and decide Iâll look more into them at a better time. I want to teach my kids correctly, but I also donât want to overcorrect by being just as adamant against YEC as my upbringing was against evolution. It seems like YEC and related teachings encouraged simple answers for everything. We all do need something for our faith to cling to, but I donât think it has to be our answers. Anyway, Iâll keep you in my prayers too. Hang in there â itâs not easy. Iâve been asking myself what it means for Jesus to be the foundation of my faith now, but it seems to be a long and involved question.
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I will check it out. Iâve read some of Pete Ennâs books and while I found them very interesting, some of the stuff has actually made things harder on me. Created obstacles in places where there werenât any before and left me with more unanswered questions.
I have one very profound experience from years ago that felt like rock bottom at the time but now is my one very strong faith experience I have no other explanation for. What happened in my life then canât be explained away with psychology or as a coincidence. It had to have been divine intervention. Iâm clinging to that, I hope to have more to cling to soon. You make some very good points. You are right, YEC had simple answers. Now I donât have those easy answers, and I donât know what to tell my kids because I myself donât know. I have this burden of teaching them the right thing, and I just donât know what the right thing is anymore. I donât know what to tell them about prayer, about heaven, our purpose on earth. I donât know what to say. Life is moving along too quickly, it just feels like so much pressure⌠still Iâm hanging in there.
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Tell them that. Also tell them what you do know ⌠that while we donât have answers to all the things we would like to know, we trust in the one who does have all that in hand for us, and who can be seen in the life of Christ. That is what (âwhoâ rather) all Christian believers have in common. Our true and only cornerstone is not what we believe about Genesis or science or all our own clever, intelligent (maybe even sometimes right) opinions about life and the bible, but in Christâs love for us and saving work on our behalf. To know Christ, and him crucified, is really all you need to cling to â whether YEC, EC, or whatever. Everything else is just the details. I repeat this not just for you, but for my own self as well, as I need to be recalled back to my first love quite often.
[The song âLofty Wordsâ by Bryan Suderman (itinerant preacher and guitarist from Ontario) is based on 1 Corinthians 2, and he sings it in that same spirit that Paul speaks of in that chapter. It really is quite something to hear and very poignant on the guitar, but Iâll have to content myself with linking to the lyrics here. Read them, but then also read 1 Cor. 2. I think we often donât appreciate the significance of what Paul is saying there. Bryanâs CDs can be purchased at his site smalltallministries.com but I got to hear him in person. --a great subject for another day. But this particular song (titled âlofty wordsâ) is what I had in mind as I wrote what I did above.]
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Thank you. I guess one of the big things Iâve been struggling with, is how it all started in the first place. YEC has simple answers⌠Adam, Eden, sin, Jesus. It makes sense. Itâs linear, everything fits together. Now with EC, there are much more complicated approaches to sin and therefore Jesus as well. I havenât been able to wrap my mind around it. Also if the story doesnât really start with Genesis 1, but more realistically with Abraham⌠so he just heard God talking to him and that was it? Thatâs a lot harder to believe for some reason. Also despite what I was taught, itâs clear Christianity and morality donât always go together. There are incredibly moral and upright people who are not Christians. Then all the psychological explanations for behaviour and experiences⌠sorry these thoughts arenât very cohesive, but this is what Iâ'm struggling with. If some of you have prayed for me, just wanted to say last night after I posted some of these things I had a moment where I felt Godâs presence again. Itâs been a long time since I felt that. I keep thinking about the verses âSeek him while he may be foundâ, and âDraw near to him and he will draw near to youâ. For many years Iâve been in a frozen state, not sure how to move forward in fear of taking a misstep. The last thing I want to do is turn away my kids from God. I am afraid of making the same mistake as YEC, or that my kids will be influenced by YEC from church groups etc. and then be so confused by the apparent contradictions that they just give it up all together. My kids are incredibly bright and very rational human beings. Contradictions are a huge red flag to them. Both of them have strong scientific minds. This just makes me even more cautious. They are getting to the age where they can see through things. Itâs made me so nervous to approach spiritual matters. It was easier when they were younger, but things are changing now. We havenât gone to church regulary for years and Iâve been hesitant to use the resources I have because I donât know if the doctrine is right, so they havenât been exposed to much. Last night I had a talk with my husband about this and I think we just need to go back to the church we used to go to when the kids were toddlers. I think I need to stop trying to have things figured out and just go and trust that God will reveal himself directly to them.
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I think you are correct about putting it in Godâs hands. I will say that the most influential thing you can do for you kids is to live a life of faith. It really does not matter so much what curriculum you teach or even if you are YEC ID RTB or EC, as kids will see through it if your life does match your teaching. That does not mean you donât have doubts or questions, but you continue to be faithful despite the doubts.
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This is beautifully expressed and something I have to recommit myself to all the time. Godâs grace is big. It meets us in the middle of all our inadequacies as parents and as followers of Christ. But it is so hard to keep falling back on it when we can always imagine there is something else out there that would be so much more solid or comfortable or safe.
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If Peter Enns isnât your cup of tea, you could try Philip Yancey. He lands in a more conservative place and personally, I find him more edifying. He also comes out of a fundamentalist/conservative evangelical background but doesnât leave it all behind, just has a more grace tempered, gray-infused instead of all black and white, view. Disappointment with God is a great book.
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Thank you, I actually just bought one of Phillip Yanceyâs books⌠I think it was called âWhat good is Godâ. I donât have ill feelings towards the faith, Iâm just looking for clarity and wanting to understand doctrine. Despite growing up in a Christian environment, for some reason the importance on teaching doctrine seemed lost on just about everyone around me who was in a leadership position, including my parents. I just got another theology book by Alister McGrath, heâs one of my favourite authors so far on the topic.
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I agree with you and see what you are saying. I think Iâm scared to focus on the faith aspect as much, because of how I was raised. You see my mother seems to equate just piousness with Christianity and she is very low IQ⌠most of her âfaithâ seems more like superstition to me. My dad is an addict, violent and psychopathic and had been that way already through most of my childhood. So itâs not like I have the best role models when it comes to figuring out how to parent in a Christian way⌠my husband doesnât either, so we often feel a bit lost when it comes to knowing what to do and how far our responsibilities go as far as our childrenâs faith journeys go. We really donât want to screw this up, but at the same time I know Godâs grace is sufficient and He will guide our kids too.
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I am glad that I found this thread today. I am looking ahead to next year for my soon-to-be 7th grader. I work part-time from home and am changing my Duke Tip testing plan for the spring because my daughter hasnât done general science yet, and the test was heavy on general science.
Since I work and time is limited, I was JUST about to sign her up for a general science class but know full well they are using a middle school Apologia text and was already cringing. I am more of an RTB/OE philosophy, but am not settled. What I do know for sure is that am not NOT a YEC and am tired of rebutting mid-lesson, which another teacher obviously will not do.
Has anyone tried the Novare curriculum? Pretty sure I am not going to find it cheap or used around here anywhere. Iâd love some input from those who have tried before I commit to another year of teaching two kids and working part time.
Blessings,
Kristin
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I have not personally used it, but here is what I have heard.
It is not young earth, but it is explicitly Christian, so if you are looking for a textbook that integrates explicitly Christian reflection without young earth baggage, it would fit the bill.
It is primarily designed for use in Christian schools by teachers with science training, so some parents find it hard to teach. It would not be an âopen and goâ type curriculum choice. But if you are used to using textbooks and teacherâs guides and making up your own course, it could work. The Novare website has specific guidance for homeschoolers here: https://www.novarescienceandmath.com/wp-content/uploads/Homeschooling-with-Novare.pdf
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