Teaching Your Kids the Truth About Creation

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by Jim Burns, Ph.D.

When it comes to science and the scientific world, I don’t claim to be an expert – in fact, few of us can.

But I’m convinced that you don’t need to have loads of formalized scientific training to teach your kids one of the most foundational basics in all of life:  the truth about Creation.

Now, a good way to begin that process is to read the first 11 chapters of Genesis – which isn’t always too appealing for a teen or pre-teen! (Let’s be honest – many adults I know haven’t take the time to embark on that kind of study recently.)  Fortunately, the search foranswers begins with the asking of good questions.  So let’s start by taking that more direct route of quality questioning to help our children get a better handle on God’s involvement in the formation of all living things.

First, a bit of background.  If your kids are in a private school, a Christian school, or if you’re homeschooling them, there probably aren’t too many barriers to teaching them about biblical Creation; however, if they’re in a public school setting, they’re being told that Darwinian Evolution is the only explanation for how we got here.

Furthermore, the fact is that Charles Darwin developed the Theory of Evolution. It is his best “educated guess” based on the evidence he had on hand many years ago. Our culture has embraced this theory as fact, but there is actually more scientific evidence supporting the biblical account of Creation than there has ever been backing Evolution.

Christians in scientific labs the world over continue to produce more and more evidence of this fact. They’re attempting to persuade even more to see the truth by identifying Creation as Intelligent Design, a term which implies that all of life did not just happen by chance and circumstance; we are the result of the work of a Designer (God) who had a plan for forming all of life into existence.

Okay, having established that foundation, let’s proceed. Reading Genesis 1-11 is something families can do together. Then, have a little “q & a” time with your kids. In particular, there are three questions you can ask them that can have a positive effect on shaping their worldview in regards to their attitudes about Creation.

1. Why do scientists and the faith community always seem to be at war over this issue?

There is mounting evidence supporting biblical Creation, and no one alive today has ever experienced the kind of evolutionary morphing and mutation that Darwinian Evolutionary Theory claims has made us “who we are today.” As Christians who support Intelligent Design, does that not mean we believe that God created science, as well? And if science was our Creator’s idea in the first place, would it not also make sense that His Creations should work in harmony with one another…so that the faith and scientific communities would each complement the other?

2. Does the latest scientific evidence point toward or away from the existence of God?

The Intelligent Designer has no place in the flow of evolution, so it stands to reason then that we’d see less evidence pointing toward God in the lab – but such is certainly not the case.

3. Is Evolution a process, or can it explain the beginning and end of life?

As Christians, we believe that God created the heavens and the earth…from nothing! True, there are certain “evolutions” that His creation may appear to undergo over time, but the Theory of Evolution makes no provision for how life and matter came into being.

When he was 14 years old, author Lee Strobel researched the evidence about life, Creation and the existence of God. He came to this conclusion:  God didn’t exist. As a result, he committed himself to atheism and considered the matter settled.

In his early adult years, he fell in love with a young girl who was an agnostic. They married and seemed to have a good relationship . . . that is, until Lee’s wife, Leslie, did an about-face and became a Christian. Over the next couple of years, he renewed his research and ultimately determined that there is a God, and he pledged his life to serving Him.

Since that time, Lee Strobel has written a number of practical and helpful books about some of the more confusing and seemingly complex issues of the Christian faith. If you’d like to learn more about “Teaching Your Kids the Truth About Creation,” I highly recommend you read his book, The Case for a Creator.

Passing on the legacy of faith to your kids is more important now than ever before, and one area where your children might face their greatest challenges to their faith is in science class. Give them the tools they need to defend their beliefs. They’ll wind up making a few believers out of former enemies…the ones who don’t stay true to all the “monkey business” of Evolution, that is.

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