Science Conversation

The other day when the kids and I were studying we had one of those lessons that would never have been allowed in public school, not only because we discussed God in it, but also because we never got to the topic that we were "supposed" to be discussing.

We were beginning chapter 2 in Madam How and Lady Why. This chapter is about Earthquakes. Towards the beginning it said "You asked me because you are a human being and a child of God, and not merely a cleverer sort of animal..." Here Aubrey stopped me and said, "We are animals." I asked her why she thought that. She said, "Lots of people say so, on TV and in books." Okay, but does that make it true? If lots of people said the moon was made of green cheese would the moon be made of green cheese? "Well, no, but they do say so." Okay, but what does God say? Let's look in Genesis chapter 1, verses 24-25, God creates the beasts and all of the animals. Man is not a part of this creation, and he is not classified with the beasts. But in the next verse God creates man after His image and to have dominion over the animals. To have dominion over something is to be in charge of it and to use it. We may do this, because we are higher than the animals, we are not included with them.

"But we are still like them in some ways." Yes, that is true. Scientists are now doing research on the brain that shows where in the brain we have a few similarities and where our differences lie. I then explained how they can scan the brain of a person or a rat and see the different areas that are being used when the person or animal is doing different things. Rats are more concerned with basic needs like food, shelter and safety, their whole brain is geared towards these needs. People have these needs too and the lower-back part of the brain is geared towards this. But the upper and frontal parts have functions that animals don't have and this is where we do our thinking and our wondering why. It is important for us to know the reasons of things and especially as you guys get older you will need to know all of the why's before you are grown, so I want you to ask me. "Can we ask you anything?" Anything. "What if we want to know why we have to go to bed so early?" Then ask, but I would advise you not to ask right at the time that I am sending you to bed, and do not ask in a disrespectful way. Here my daughter had to stop and act out the two ways to ask something=).

Of course, I then had to explain the different sleep needs of babies, children and adults and why the children needed to go to bed before Dad and I, but as they got older they would be able to stay up later and by the time they were adults they would probably have similar sleep patterns to Dad and I. They were quite pleased with this.

"How do rats use their brains when they run mazes?" I explained to the children their need for food and that they ran the mazes to get the food and by trial and error they soon learned the best way to go and could remember it and run the maze faster each time up to a point. "What if the maze was switched on them?" We discussed this and then my daughter said, "We are like rats too, because we first want food, house and stuff and then we want our other stuff." Yes, you are right. This is what a man named Maslow called our hierarchy of needs, which just means that we need to know where our next meal is coming from, that we will be protected and that we will be safe, before we will be ready to go on to say studying or something. Here my son adds, "Yeah, I am getting hungry and it makes it hard for me to think."

"So, if we are not animals, why do so many people say that we are?" Well, you have to remember that when we teach science we have to teach that there is a reason things happen and in our public schools, which most people in our country go to they are not allowed to talk about God, so they have to come up with another reason that things happen. A man name Darwin had a few ideas on this subject and then others have taken his ideas and added to them, so they now teach that everything came from rocks, including the animals and us. The rocks collided and came alive in the form of amoeba-type creatures and these then grew to fish, which changed to amphibians and after a big line of things these changed to monkeys that turned in to us. This idea can be taught in schools, because it doesn't include God and so this is what is taught as the reason why of things and in this idea we are just like the animals, we just got smarter.

Of course, this idea of evolution defies other scientific principals like the second law of thermodynamics, but they don't teach that, because then they would have to come up with a new way to explain things. Do you remember the second law of thermodynamics or entropy? Kamron says, "Oh, yea, that's like if a brick building is there for a really long time it will fall down, but if you have a pile of bricks it is not going to turn into a brick building unless someone does it." Right, if organized things are left alone they will become disorganized, but disorganized things don't become more organized unless someone or something acts upon them. This also means that life forms are not going to get more organized on their own-bricks don't collide and turn into buildings and rocks don't collide and turn into people. By leaving out certain scientific teachings in schools and including only parts of others they can get people to only hear half of the story and then those people think they know the whole story and start believing what they've learned is true and everybody else who thinks that God designed and set things up and continues to have an effect on the Earth are wrong. And now even in colleges and Universities they teach evolution and many ridicule those who don't believe in it.

At this point we decided to read about earthquakes another day, because it was time to clean up. But, my daughter once again informed me that she wants to become a scientist and study chemistry. This is about the tenth request to study chemistry, so I may have to scrap my plans for studying botany this next year and instead study chemistry. I am finding this is happening more and more and the children learn more if I follow their lead. So, it is time to research options for a chemistry study.