i want my 12 year old son to educate himself on evolution.?

Question

he refuses to read a chapter in a biology book about it because he does not believe in it. I feel strongly that he needs to understand what the theory is even if he does not agree with it. I feel so strongly that i have grounded him until he reads the chapter and and then discuss it. he thinks this is unfair. i am interested in hearing what other people think about my position.

Answer 1

You are kidding, of course?

Answer 2

First, why have you posed this question in the religion section? Is your son taking a stand on his faith? Why take that away from him? Secondly, why can't you teach him both and let him make his own decision? I am going to school to become a high school Biology teacher, and I'm a Christian. The two ideas don't have to wrestle to the death with each other. I think it is unfair that you ground him for not reading a chapter in a Biology book. The school system will require him to read up on it in due time. In the mean while, if you really care about other people's opinion, here's my opinion on the evolution/creation story "debate".

Darwin argued that evolution of complex forms of life evolved from simpler forms. Genesis describes such an evolution. 1. Light and Dark 2. Water and Sky 3. Seas and Land 4. Vegetation 5. Sun, Moon, Stars 6. Fish and Birds 7. Mammals and Man 8. Rest.

Evolution of the species is not tracked according to days, weeks, years, it is tracked according to evolution of species. This can take very little time as in an adaptation to environment, or a very long time as in the the evolution and extinction of the dinosaurs. Many theologians have tried to interpret the time line of the 7 days of creation with many contradicting ideas. The creation story has order, it is set up in stages.

The assumption that man evolved from apes is clearly contorted and dogmatic. God created the world in stages and left the best, Man, for last, the highest stage of evolution. We may have resemblances to primates, but our differences are much more important than our similarities. Both the Creation story and the Theory of Evolution are consistent with the development of formlessness to simple forms to complex forms. Both emphasize continuity. Just because the Theory of Evolution has some details wrong, doesn't mean it should be disregarded entirely.

There are too many missing pieces to accept it as fact, that is where our faith in God's wonderful gift of creation comes in.

Remember that Genesis just gives us the Who (God created....) and Why (and He saw that it was good...), it doesn't give us the mechanics.

Answer 3

Be very careful about forcing him to read this chapter in his biology book. You may want to check into Lee Strobels book "Case for a Creator" and go through the biology book with your son to support your son in his belief.
That way he can get an understanding of some of the fallacies being taught and at the same time gain a greater understanding of how he can defend his position.

Answer 4

Evolution is _the_ foundation of modern biology. It helped us dispense with some very ridiculous notions about the origins of human history. Both the reasoning and the evidence behind it are completely solid and concrete. We have observed both microevolution (variation within species) and macroevolution (the changing of one species into another over long periods of time; contrary to the popular myth that macroevolution has never been observed).

And what better time than this? Tomorrow is Darwin Day!

Grounding him may not have been the best idea, because that will just make him more hostile to the theory of evolution. Instead, you might want to familiarize yourself with the theory a little bit, maybe read some of the wikipedia article on it, so that you can be ready to address questions or issues he has with the theory. In my position, evolution is simply a "correct" theory so I think that any disagreement with evolution comes from just not understanding it well enough, but this obviously is not everyone's position. If this is for school, it is much more important that he understand it than that he agrees with it.

Here is the _most basic_ run-down of evolution:
1. It is the tendency of species to make new generations (to reproduce).
2. It is the tendency of each generation to vary slightly (children are not 100% identical to their parents, or even to the average of both parents together, because of coincidental factors in DNA broadly called "mutations").
3. It is the tendency of those who are slightly better-equipped than the previous generation to survive and reproduce at a slightly greater rate than the previous generation. (This process is called "adaptation").
4. Over large periods of time (hundreds or thousands of generations), these slight changes translate into the gradual replacement with the less-equipped population than with the better-equipped population.
5. These changes are inspired by changes in the environment and the evolution of predators (better-evolved predators will eat more of the less-evolved prey, so, those members of the less-evolved prey population who are slightly better-equipped to survive long enough to reproduce will gradually replace the less-evolved prey population with a better-evolved, better-equipped prey population).
6. Therefore, evolution occurs.

Nobody denies that "micro-evolution" occurs. Micro-evolution is variation within a species: you can see it when you breed dogs (if you breed all the best dogs together for a few generations, eventually you get show dogs and racing dogs, but who are still of the same species). "Macro-evolution" is more complicated. Macro-evolution is the separation of species, in which different populations eventually become so different that they can no longer breed with each other (elephants and giraffes, for example, cannot breed together to make a half-elephant, half-giraffe).

Speciation is statistical and there are always exceptions. For example, the mule.

There is a myth spread by creationists that speciation has never been observed. To read about observed instances of speciation, go (or send your son) here:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html

Answer 5

Explain to him that you respect his beliefs, but that you would love it if he educated himself on the alternatives. Talk to him about those who judge before they learn. Ask him to tell you about what he believes, and you yourself explain yours. Take a calm approach about it, and discuss about why you want him to have a good education. Don't force the issue.

And for the record (don't take this the wrong way) grounding him isn't going to provide incentive to read about it. It's probably going to make him even more adament about NOT reading it.

Answer 6

I think you are the mother a kid was talking about earlier. Now that I have both sides try to explain to him that he needs to know why he believes what he believes. Tell him that you are proud of him for believing in Creation. Explain to him to read it so he can better understand why he believes what he believes. Maybe that will help him read about it.

Answer 7

I think your son is a bit too young to decide just yet what to read and what not to read in school! he can read it for knowledge but not believe it if he so chooses . I would ground him more and take away his electronic games until he gets the message !

worked for my son , who is finnishing nursing school this year!

He laughs about it today and says he wouldnt let his kids run all over him like that!

Answer 8

Hes right it is unfair. Not the evolution part but the fact your grounding him for not reading it.

Answer 9

If he's a proficient reader, you can buy him a copy of Richard Dawkins' book, "The Blind Watchmaker".

If he isn't, you can buy him "Life on Earth", which is a children's book on evolution. The age recommendation is 6-10, though.

Answer 10

If a child refuses to do school work, parents are within their rights to punish the child as they see fit (without resorting to corporal punishment, of course).

Answer 11

Learn the facts you want him to know, and teach them to him indirectly. Like the fact that little tiny microbes in our bodies evolve to reject penicillin.