My daughter having to memorize Ken Ham's 7 C's

Well, she did her oral report today. She reports that the teacher, “didn’t say anything” about anything in her report. The girl who went before her did the Flood, straight out of the Ken Ham booklet, so the remaining class time was spent with the teacher telling about his awesome trip to the Creation Museum. Sigh. At least my kids know the Creation Museum as the place where 100 million Christian dollars was not spent on caring for the widows and the orphans in their distress.

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How did your daughter take the silent treatment? It is tough being a kid sometimes, and I remember lots of tears and conflicts around 6th grade. Hopefully kids will be kind.

I don’t think the teacher’s response bothered her. She is more bothered by the fact that all of her friends use YEC materials. At lunch she was like, “J. showed me a book that said that the carnivorous dinosaurs were herbivores before Eve sinned. It really said that in a book. I thought you were just joking when you said some people believed that.”

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You can do no better than Tremper Longman and John Walton, in my humble opinion. They are readable, scholarly and write compassionately.

It is interesting how they couch their language in a binary sort of way. There is Ken Ham’s way or the non-christian way of thinking through these issues. This is bad pedagogy-not good. Your daughter may not get a top score but she can relate how the story beautifully illustrates how language was dispersed from a geographical area (I do not know much about linguistics although I studied it a bit). Since it is a Bible and History class there is nothing wrong with her writing about how the Tower of Babel illustrates man’s hubrus and talk about how some take the story as literal history while others see it as a story that encapsulates truth told in a creative manner. She needs to know how to think critically, write pursuasively and use sound, logical arguments. Or, she can regurgitate what is required of her and get an A.

I am sorry. I did not read far enough to see that the report was written and an oral presentation given. Kudos for writing a well-researched paper.

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I would also add:

No human effort can bring us to God. In the story, it offends God that the people think they can reach Him with a human building. In our scientific world, some try to reach God with creation science. Maybe, instead, we should rely on God’s effort to reach us through Jesus instead.

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That is a good lesson. YEC creationists are all around us (44% of the US population) and we do well to find ways to coexist with them in Christian community. I think it is really encouraging that your daughter was met with what sounds like polite silence, rather than aggressive opposition. That is a good outcome, even though it may feel difficult.

One failing of some theistic evolutionists (evolutionary creationists?) is that we sometimes fail to appreciate existence of and politely engage YEC in the church. I’m really glad to see you teaching your daughter to do better.

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Christy, aren’t you a fan of N. T. Wright? How do you not have Creation Renewed in your list? Sorry - I read Surprised by Hope a few months ago, so I got the message of New Creation drilled in me pretty well.

I’m sorry I didn’t chime in on this in time to give you any helpful advice, but I think you and your daughter handled the matter really well. Even if one classmate took a step towards understanding that the historical and cultural setting are important to comprehending the text and that the point of the story is to teach about God and God’s ways, and not necessarily to give a “play by play” account of an event in ancient history, I’d consider that a success.

Well, as a kindred-spirit nerd I’ll tell you that I count studying maps together as father-son bonding time!

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Hey @Christy, I have been off the boards for a much-needed hiatus (I was off the WTM boards too, lol.) Anyway, I just saw this, and you and your girl handled the situation admirably!

Too bad you are out of the country… the Cincinnati convention is coming up in April. You know, the one Ken Ham boycotted;-)

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Certain people would be very sad if you did, i.e. the other moderators. One website such as the Biologos forums can never have to many people on deck.

Calder! Welcome, glad you joined us. :smile_cat: