Over
the past few years, two separate Christian research groups — the Barna
Group and LifeWay Research — have reported that upwards of 70 percent
of Christian youth leave the church or abandon their faith after high
school. "Most of them," states Barna,
"pull away from participation and engagement in Christian churches,
particularly during the 'college years.'" Only one in five, they say,
have maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their
high school experiences.
Sounds to me like a good reason for Christian parents to encourage
their children to seriously consider a Christian college, where their
faith will be bolstered and encouraged by their peers and professors —
right? Well, one would hope so…
When
a college bills itself as a Christian school and even highlights the
denomination with which it is affiliated, I think it's fair to assume
the school gives preeminence to the written Word of God — or at the
very least, adheres to that denomination's tenets. But I was sorely
disappointed last month as I was helping my youngest select a college
to attend this fall.
You
see, my sweet daughter wants to study marine biology — which early on
in her classes will certainly subject her to the presentation of
Darwin's theory of evolution. Not that I'm opposed to her learning
about that; after all, it is part of the scientific discussion these days and needs to be addressed.
However, my concern — and I hoped hers as well — was how
it would be handled by the biology department at the university she
ends up attending this fall. That's why I submitted the following
question to the head of the biology department at Carson-Newman
College, the Southern Baptist-affiliated institution that sat atop her
list of schools being considered:
Can you tell me how, as part of a Christian college, your department teaches evolutionary theory vs. creation theory?
Here's
a slightly condensed (but otherwise unmodified) version of the response
I received. If you're not already sitting down, I suggest you do so.
"[We] try to cover all major aspects of modern biology. Any
topics which the scientific community at large accepts as being factual
— we present as facts; what is accepted as theory — we present as
theory. [Emphasis mine]
"…When topics arise that may be controversial, we cover the
prevailing scientific view….[We] cover evolution since it represents
the prevailing scientific theory that explains a great deal of
observational and experimental data….[We] do discuss creation stories
and creation science in a biology course, but from the scientific
perspective, and in the appropriate course.
"[What we cover] is in part dictated by what other accredited
institutions cover (transfer issues), what's required for standardized
tests…and what's required by the teacher education program where
certain topics are mandated by the state.
"[We] do not try to change an individual's beliefs, but rather desire
to cover the major topics anyone completing an accredited biology
program should be familiar with.
"We do not teach Creation as a conflicting 'theory' because we don't think it is. Creation
addresses the question 'who did it?' (God); evolution addresses the
question 'what happened?' Technically, evolution is the change in the
genetic makeup of populations over time; it does not deal with origins." [Again, emphasis mine]
What? Evolution doesn't deal with origins? And all this time I thought Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species dealt with origins…silly me.
But forget Darwin's 1859 classic. What about something more enduring…say, God's Word? All this time I thought the first chapter of Genesis answered the question "what happened?" Again, silly me.
And to my knowledge, the scientific community at large (read: the world) accepts the theory of evolution as fact
(see first emphasis in the response above). My guess is that a
Christian student who aspires to conduct biological research — or to
teach at this Southern Baptist school — had best not try to argue
otherwise.
A challenge
My objective here is not to bash Carson-Newman…because I fear, sadly,
it's not the only self-described Christian university where the world
trumps the Word in the evolution-creation debate. What I would rather
that readers — my Christian brothers and sisters, specifically — take
away is a resolve to challenge this thinking in the realm of Christian
education.
Ever heard of something called "theistic evolution"? It's a view in
which God is not the omnipotent Lord of all things, but is integrated
into atheistic evolutionary philosophy. One of the dangers of theistic
evolution is that God becomes a "God of the Gaps" — that is, if
evolution can't "explain" a certain part of nature, if there are
doubts, then, hey, God did it! (There are nine other dangers of theistic evolution, according to creationist Dr. Werner Gitt.)
The apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis argues that evolution is basically a religious philosophy –
not a science, which involves observation and the ability to repeat
those observations. By way of explanation, AIG president Ken Ham notes:
"[N]o
scientist was present over the suggested millions of years to witness
the supposed evolutionary progression of life from the simple to the
complex. No living scientist was there to observe the first life
forming in some primeval sea. No living scientist was there to observe
the big bang that is supposed to have occurred 10 or 20 billion years
ago….no human witness was there to see these events occurring. They
certainly cannot be repeated today."
I
would have no problem with a biology department at a Christian
university recognizing that fact and teaching evolution from that
perspective. But for a self-identified Christian school to endorse a
violation of basic scientific principles — and more importantly, to
dilute the Word of God — is more than I can stomach for my precious
daughter.
SOURCE
By the way, she's decided Carson-Newman isn't the school for her. We're looking elsewhere.