Raising Christian Evolutionists

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why parents who teach their children creation science or intelligent design in a way which elevates those teachings to a fundamental of the Christian faith are putting their children’s long term spiritual well being at risk.  In the comments on that post (which were remarkably civil for this topic BTW, thank you to all who commented!), someone asked how I teach my kids to be faithful Christians while also accepting the science of evolution and geology and such.  I think this is a good question and figured I would share how it works in our house. 

The first thing I tell my kids is that God is always willing to meet us where we are.  He doesn’t wait for us to get it all together or have a good grasp of life to reach out and reveal himself to us.  Thousands of years ago the ancient Hebrews had no numbers for billions.  They did not know what elements or atoms or DNA were.  They did not know where sickness came from or what the stars were.  It would have been literally impossible for them to understand a universe which was billions of years old, stars made out of burning gas shining many billions of light years away.  They could not have comprehended that life was composed of atoms linked together into molecules which linked together to make macromolecules which worked together to create all the tissues, fluids and such of the human body.  They could not have comprehended what DNA does, how it replicates itself, how it gets passed down from generation to generation while various mutations occur which can, over time beyond their words to even name, result in a diversity of life they weren’t even aware of. 

In other words, it would have been impossible for the one true God to reveal his role in and purpose for creation to the ancient Hebrews in a way which reflected the scientific reality of this amazing creation.  Continue reading “Raising Christian Evolutionists”