http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com Understanding Science and the Theology of Creation Fri, 09 May 2008 17:32:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The "Two Sciences" Problem Facing Christian Educators Private Christian Schools have a choice in how they teach the natural sciences.  It's not an easy choice (fore reasons we'll discuss in a later post), but they can present students with what I'll call "mainstream secular science" (MSS) or they can teach what I ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/05/09/science-and-education-5/ What is Folk Science? Evangelicals don't normally dispute secular Scientific attempts to construct a logical framework to explain the various patterns observed in a particular set of data.  For instance, atomic theory suggests a physical model of the atom that seems plausible.  Nobody has actually seen a bunch of protons and neutrons packed inside ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/05/04/science-and-education-4/ I'm taking a brief interlude from my series on Science and Christian Education to talk about Intelligent Design.  Before I became comfortable studying biology, I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on that had to do with physics.  One of my favorite things was to read "thought" experiments designed ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/05/02/an-id-thought-experiment/ One doesn't usually perform a review of another person's movie review, but I came across this review of Ben Stein's movie, Expelled, that was so full of either inexcusable ignorance or downright dishonesty that, even though I have not yet seen the film, I feel as though I should comment on the ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/30/my-expelled-review-sort-of/ The "Primary" and "Secondary" Causes of Ordinary Providence Even God's ordinary providence, which manifests itself to us as the uniformity of nature, has both "ultimate" (primary) and "proximate" (secondary) causality.  These are not two competing answers to the same question, but rather two different answers to two different questions about the ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/27/science-and-education-3/ What Are the Natural Sciences? Before we can even discuss the Natural Sciences and how they should or shouldn't be taught in Christian schools, we must first understand what the natural sciences are and what distinguishes them from the pseudo-sciences.  The following list is a mix both science and pseudo-science.  Why is only one ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/20/science-and-education-2/ Conflict Inevitable but not Necessary Image Source: http://www.christianmind.org/illus/conflict.htm One thing that Christian Educators must realize is that until the consummation of all things, there WILL be conflicts between science and theology.  This is not to say that God, being the author of all knowledge, contradicts Himself.  We can assume that Special Revelation and General Revelation ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/19/science-and-education-1/ Over the next few months, I'll be finishing up a lecture series called Science and Christian Education designed to give Christian educators a more effective paradigm for the training of children in the natural sciences. Very few children educated in Christian Schools go on to become practicing scientists. A small number ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/18/science-and-education-0/ Two seemingly unrelated things happened to me this past weekend: (1) I had a delightful email exchange with Dr. Walton, and (2) I tried to rent my favorite movie, Contact, from Blockbuster.  No joy on Contact, but I was pleased to hear that Dr. Walton will be recommending BTF to his ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/12/carl-saganjohn-walton/ Opponents of evolution often claim that such conclusions are “inevitable” when you approach the data of natural history from a Darwinian framework.  They are partially correct.  For instance, when I sit down to solve a puzzle, the image on the front of the box is the framework by which I make ... http://www.blog.beyondthefirmament.com/2008/04/09/puzzled-over-bias/