Science and the Bible

by Eclectic Homeschooling Posted on

sciencebible

Before I put together this Science and the Bible study, I had intended to use the Good Science, Good Faith curriculum.  When I went to buy it I discovered the shipping costs had gone up.  This wasn’t just a matter of a few dollars.  Shipping to Canada is usually pretty high, but I had priced out the curriculum with the shipping costs about 2 months earlier.  When I went to buy it, the shipping costs and the cost of the whole curriculum were beyond what I was willing to spend on one class.  Because of that I ended up putting together various resources to make a study that I think will be a good fit for my son.  Since this is the first school year he is really studying evolution, I thought it was a good time to study the different perspectives that Christians have toward evolution and creation.

For this study I chose 4 books along with several online lectures, debates, and documentary-style videos.  My goal here is not to have my son get firmly grounded in one viewpoint, but understand that the Word of God can be interpreted different ways by Christians who believe in the validity of God’s Word.

The Holman QuickSource Guide to Understanding Creationappears to do quite well at taking a neutral stance.  It covers the many different viewpoints as well as the arguments for each position.  I haven’t read the book yet, but what I have read it seems quite neutral.  However, if you are strongly in one camp I can see how one might find this book to be biased since it appears to treat many different viewpoints as valid.

I chose the Icons of Evolutionbook because I want my son to learn to think critically about evolution and the science of evolution.  This is also another book I have not read yet, but my son is quite interested in it.

Why the Universe Is the Way It Iswas written by Hugh Ross.  He is a progressive creationist and an astronomer who believes in a literal interpretation of God’s Word.  Since my son is a bit of an astronomy-nut, I thought his book would be a good choice for my son to think through some issues.

The last book, The Genesis Question: Scientific Advances and the Accuracy of Genesis,  is a bit more scholarly than I expected.  It has some great information, but I think it will be a slower read for my son.  Because of that, I put it last in the line-up in case we don’t get that far in our study.

I have no idea how long this study will take which is a big minus when you put your own things together.  I’m having my son spend about 2 hours on this each week with some of the time as discussion time with me.  I listed everything chronologically so when he finishes one thing he will just go on to the next thing in the list.  I’m not going to attempt to figure out how to make it fit into a weekly or monthly schedule.  We typically do things by time, so I’ll tell my son to spend x minutes on the study that day and he will go until time runs out.

Science and the Bible Study

Introduction

Journey toward Creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7hXHMco7tU&list=PL256F49FDD89627C570 min (creation)

Holman Quick Source Guide to Understanding Creation

Part 1:  Ancient Stories about Creation and the Creator

  • Chapter 1 – Creation Myths of Ancient Cultures pg 8-18
  • Chapter 2 – From Genesis to Exodus pg 19-28
  • Chapter 3 – Biblical Creation Stories pg 29-42

Part 2:  Revelation in Scripture and Creation

  • Chapter 4 – Relevation in Scripture pg 46-50
  • Chapter 5 – Revelaton in Creation pg 51-63
  • Chapter 6 – Models for Relating Science and the Bible pg 64-69
  • Chapter 7 – Three Models of Creationism pg 70-83

Part 3:  The Creator’s Week of Creation

  • Chapter 8- In the Beginning Genesis 1:1-2 pg 86-95
  • Chapter 9 – The First Day Genesis 1:3-5 pg 96-102
  • Chapter 10 – The Second Day Genesis 1:6-8 pg 103-107
  • Chapter 11 – The Third Day Genesis 1:9-13 pg 108-114
  • Chapter 12 – The Fourth Day Genesis 1:14-19 pg 115-121
  • Chapter 13 – The Fifth Day Genesis 1:20-23 pg 122-126
  • Chapter 14- The Sixth Day Genesis 1:24-31 pg 127-134
  • Chapter 15 – The Seventh Day Genesis 2:1-3 pg 135-138

Hugh Ross on the Book of Job –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp2iYqjQN8k&list=PL0159D734B2D945CC1.5 hours

Part 4:  Eden, Fall and the Flood

  • Chapter 16 – Genesis 2 – Life in Eden pg 142-146
  • Chapter 17 – Genesis 3 – Serpent, Fall, and Curse pg 147-153
  • Chapter 18 – Genesis and the Flood pg 154-168

Part 5:  Genesis and the Age of Earth

  • Chapter 19 – Back to the Beginning pg 172—177
  • Chapter 20 – The Recent Creation View pg 179-187
  • Chapter 21 – The Day-Age View pg 188-200
  • Chapter 22 – The Analogical Days View pg 201-208
  • Chapter 23 – The Fiat Days View pg 209-213
  • Chapter 24 – The Framework View pg 214-219

Hugh Ross and Ken Ham debate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgueGotRqbM1 hour

Part 6:  Science and the Age of the Earth

  • Chapter 25- Science and a Young Earth pg 222-234
  • Chapter 26 – Science and an Ancient Earth pg 235-243
  • Chapter 27 – Geology and Noah’s Flood pg 244-254
  • Chapter 28 – A Christian View of Radiometric Dating pg 255-265

John Ankerberg Show Science and the Bible Ross, Ham, Lisle, Kaiser 3.5 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa2qyoqwejU

Part 7:  Six Impossible Things:  Nature’s Story of Creation

  • Chapter 29 – Darwinism in a Nutshell pg 268-275
  • Chapter 30 – Intelligent Design in a Nutshell pg 276-288
  • Chapter 31 – The Adam Equation pg 289-294

Who Was Adam?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8T1_PArJY&list=PLE571EDE8564EB4B2 110 min

  • Chapter 32 – Impossibilities in Philosophy:  Origins of the Cosmos pg 295-302
  • Chapter 33 – Impossibilities in Physics:  A Goldilocks Universe pg 303-312
  • Chapter 34 – Impossibilities in Astronomy:  An Exceptional Earth pg 313-320

Creation as Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPvO2EkiLls70 min – Hugh Ross lecture

  • Chapter 35 – Impossibilities in Chemistry:   The Origin of Life pg 321-328
  • Chapter 36- Impossibilities in Biochemistry:  Biological Complexity pg 329-338
  • Chapter 37 – Impossibilities in Anthropology:  The Image of God pg 339-349

Part 8 Apes, Bones, and Human Ancestry

  • Chapter 38 – Apes and Cavemen Our Ancestors pg 352-356
  • Chapter 39 – Fossils pg 357-365

Part 9 Concluding Thoughts

  • Chapter 40 Understanding Creation in the Twenty First Century pg 368-371

John Ankerberg debate with Hugh Ross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4K2dbfoD7M3 hours
If We Had No Moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?=yOgC_7XM7dk&list=PLD185CD8B3F31EB83  50 min

Icons of Evolution

  • Chapter 1 – Introduction pg 1-8
  • Chapter 2 – The Miller-Urey Experiment pg 9-28
  • Chapter 3 – Darwin’s Tree of Life pg 29-58
  • Chapter 4 – Homology in Vertebrate Limbs pg 59-80

The Day the Earth Nearly Died http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn62AjIpWMw50 min (dinosaur extinction)

  • Chapter 5 – Haeckel’s Embryos pg 81-110
  • Chapter 6 – Archaeopteryx:  The Missing Link pg 111-136
  • Chapter 7 – Peppered Moths pg 137-158
  • Chapter 8 – Darwin’s Finches pg 159-176
  • Chapter 9 – Four-Winged Fruit Flies pg 177-194

God, Darwin, or Both https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5D60FA7DBBBB0586  2.5 hours debate between evolution, old earth, and young earth

  • Chapter 10- Fossil Horses and Directed Evolution pg 195-208
  • Chapter 11 – From Ape to Human:  The Ultimate Icon pg 209-228
  • Chapter 12 – Science or Myth pg 229-248
  • Appendix I – An Evaluation of Ten Recent Biology Textbooks pg 249-258
  • Appendix II – Suggested Waring Labels for Biology Textbooks pg 259-260

Spirituality, Science, and the Christian Faith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1pFaslTMAw  45 min

Why the Universe is the Way it is

  • Why Ask Why Questions?
  • Why Such a Vast Universe?
  • Why Such an Old Universe?

Hugh Ross and Lewis Wolpert (atheist) Is there evidence for a cosmic creator?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF1xSErF_f41.75 hours

  • Why Such a Lonely Universe?
  • Why Such a Dark Universe?
  • Why a Decaying Universe?

Scientific Evidence for the Christian Faith by Hugh Ross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKGFezN0Cd41.5 hours

  • Why a Realm beyond This One?
  • Why This Particular Planet, Star, Galaxy, and Universe?
  • Why Believe the Bible?
  • Why Not a Perfect Universe – Now?
  • Why These Physical Laws and Dimensions?
  • Why Two Creations?
  • Why Is the New Creation Better?

Galileo’s Battle for the Heavenshttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/galileo-battle-for-the-heavens.html2 hours

The Genesis Question

  • A Personal Journey
  • Reasons for Resistance
  • Creation of the Cosmos
  • Creation Events:  Days One and Two
  • Creation Events:  Days Three and Four
  • Creation Events:  Days Five and Six
  • The Source Controversy
  • Rest: Day Seven

Hugh Ross Jason Lisle Debate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A6FvPDCHWA&list=PLC937FC6E7E32817240 min

  • A Spiritual Perspective on Creation – Genesis 2
  • Modern Criticism Arises
  • Genesis and “Creation Science”
  • How Far the Fall – Genesis 3
  • Cain’s Wife and City – Genesis 4
  • Dating the Origin of Humanity – Genesis 5

Hugh Ross and Danny Faulkner Debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaiAomEVpKY  5.25 hours

  • The Possibility of Long Life Spans – Genesis 5-6
  • Sons of God and the Nephilim – Genesis 6
  • The Boundaries of God’s Wrath – Genesis 6
  • The Flood: Global or Local? – Genesis 7-8
  • The Ark and Its Passengers – Genesis 6-9
  • The Origin of Nations and Races – Genesis 9-11
  • Dispelling Myth About Genesis

Genesis Debate Ham, Behe, and Mortenson – 5.75 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4dpVpS38Cc

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7 thoughts on “Science and the Bible”

  1. It does, thank you. I quite enjoy what Hugh Ross has to say 🙂 My husband does too. I think it’s actually helped his faith walk since he saw the errors in YEC. I still have a lot of questions but this is a great start… I’m listening to Ross right now and he said he knew by the time he was 8 that he wanted to be a space scientist, that’s like my son too. Interesting stuff. I had never heard of this view of Creation before. Thanks!

    Reply

  2. I just finished going through some of the Hugh Ross videos… I have a question for you, have you always been an old earther? I was raised to believe in young earth creation. After going through the material from “Reasons to Believe” I see that is not a very rational approach. We had been using Apologia science and now I’m not sure anymore… my kid wants to be a scientist when he grows up… a space scientist… I want to teach him the truth.

    Reply

    1. No, I was raised a YEC and had that perspective for most of my life. I have been open to an old earth perspective for about the last 10-15 years, but my son’s science interests led me to study things out for myself and I find that I pretty much lean old earth now. HTH 🙂

      Reply

    1. Thanks Simone! I’m happy that it can be useful. I look forward to going through this with my other kids too.

      Reply

  5. I am utterly humbled by the amount of time and attention you put into developing lesson plans for your kids. Thank you for publishing them and lending a hand to others our here in the homeschooling world!

    Irene in MD

    Reply

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