From the Principal's Office: When Revising Becomes Refuting

It fascinates me how the same evidences in science can lead to two completely different views of Truth. Without a Biblical basis, our "science" can come to the wrong conclusions. 

 

I spent most of my day today trying to revise the 5th grade science SOLs and ended up refuting them. (At least 5.7)

This SOL states:

The student will investigate and understand how Earth's surface is constantly changing.

Key concepts include

a) identification of rock types;

b) the rock cycle and how transformations between rocks occur;

c) Earth history and fossil evidence;

d) the basic structure of Earth's interior;

e) changes in Earth's crust due to plate tectonics;

f) weathering, erosion, and deposition; and

g) human impact.

 

You can see the full SOLs for 5th grade Science here:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/k-6/stds_science5.pdf

 

They may seem innocent enough until you realize the teaching behind these objectives. It is entirely unbiblical. Biblically we can cover the same topics. But we will come to a completely different result and scientific reasoning behind these changes. The students at Central Christian Academy will be learning geological facts that will lead them to six evidences for the Genesis Flood. Answers in Genesis is one of the main sources we will use to teach these evidences and explain how Earth's history, fossil evidence, and even plate tectonics are all recorded for us in the Bible.

 

Our 5.7 Science objective reads:

a) identification of rock types;

b) the rock cycle and how transformations between rocks occur;

c) Earth history and the six main geologic evidences for the Genesis flood

1. Fossils of sea creatures high above sea level

2. Rapid burial of plants and animals

3. Rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas

4. Sediment transported long distances

5. Rapid or no erosion between strata

6. Many strata laid down in rapid succession

And

e) changes in Earth's crust due to plate tectonics;( www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n4/geologic-evidences-part-one )

 

Students will learn the motion of the earth's crust is accepted by uniformitarian and creationist scientists alike. The difference lies in the time frame over which the movement has happened. Current seafloor spreading, magnetic reversals recorded in the seafloor crust, similar rocks and fossils across ocean basins, and the puzzle-like fit of continents are evidences that appear to be explainable in slow-and-uniform terms over billions of years. However, these evidences can be better explained by the rapid and catastrophic movement of the plates during the Flood. Computer modeling has shown that the continents could have separated in a matter of weeks—millions of years are not required. The key is the runaway catastrophic rate of sinking of the pre-Flood ocean floor crust after it broke up. Additionally, the catastrophic plate tectonics model provides a mechanism for the rainfall during the Flood and the presence of fossilized marine creatures atop mountains and rock layers spread across the continents. ( www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/plate-tectonics )

 

The continents were originally grouped together known as Pangea. The Bible suggests the seperation happened at Creation (Gen. 1:9-10) about 6,000 years ago and again during the Flood about 4,300 years ago (Gen. 7:11-12), while secular scientists believe this happened twice over the last 800 or so million years of earth history.

 

Our students won't be able to pass an SOL test on this objective but that is something to be thankful for. They will know Truth as the Bible presents it. Not a scientific theory that our world claims is proof to the geological phenomenas.

 

Our full curriculum guides for every grade are available here.

Most of the time, we were able to revise the SOLs so they stem from Biblical Truth. In this case, we felt our revising was actually refuting.

 

If we put our kids in the public school system, we have to know what they are being taught as fact is not. and there are answers to these observations that they will never be given.