Evolution, where on line can I get a simplified answer to the lies that are being taught?

Question

I meeting with my son's science teacher to discuss evolution because I will not allow him to be in class for it. I need some basic info on the lies, such as the inaccuracy of radiometric dating etc. I am familar with answers in genesis and dr dino but want something I can quickly refer to that is short so I can study and know it better.

First of all evolution is a theory, they are only presenting one. I would have left my son in if they had presented two. Obviously you should always present at least two if you are not presenting facts. Remember when the world was flat?? Lies are told and believed. What do you think happened with Hitler? If you tell a lie long enough people will believe it.

Also, I did homeschool my son. However, I do not want to shelter him from the world, he's got to live in it.

Wow! what a response, I extended this to get a few more answers. I appreciate all of them. It will take me some time to research the sources and just read some of the answers. I appreciate the great effort made by so many. Thanks

Some of the answers are more in depth and require more then one reading.

Some of the answers are more in depth and require more then one reading.

Some of the answers are more in depth and require more then one reading.

Final thought after reviewing the info provided here, what came to mind is people die off at different rates, the small pox epidemic certainly affected things greatly but we know that. If I am understanding the dating part of this they are assuming they know what was happening in the lives of the rocks prior to the history we have. Assuming is very dangerous especially when people take it as fact. Common sense should prevail with regard especially to the part where we came from a big bang unless of course you don't want to answer to the real God then any excuse will do. I hope you are at peace knowing you came from a rock. I am at peace knowing I am going to heaven. God bless you all and thanks for the concern, the laughs, and the indepth answers.

Answer 1

Ok, to answer your question, www.answersingenesis.com is supposed to have alot of stuff. I've argued against their points on several occasions. I'm sure they have multiple links on their page to other sites of similar type.

That said, I actually have a graduate degree in nuclear chemistry, and I can tell you that their interpretation of radiological dating is wrong. It's not a crime, alot of people don't understand exactly what's going on in radiation. But that's why we have schools: to teach children.

If you want to know something about radiometric dating from someone in the field, I'll submit this for you to read. If you want facts to support your conclusion, then don't read it.

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Radiological dating is done by two methods, and they seem to have been mixxed in their reading of it.

On the simpler one, you can use neutron bombardment to see exactly what elements are in there, and, different volcanos (I know not all magma/rocks comes from volcanos, but I'm not feeling like getting technical on things that aren't my area, so I'll stick to the radiation) will tend to have different mineral compositions. We actually had a girl in my research group whose project was archeometry (which is like archeology, but with actual numbers and science), she took pottery samples, obsidian fragments from tools, and other samples and used these techniques to backtrack the path that those items took geographically to see what north/central american cultures traded with each other... and found trade routes that others didn't know had existed.
This application of radiochemistry simply serves to tell what's in an object... it doesn't pretend to be able to date it... and any dates gotten with this technique are very flexible.

The process more commonly called radiodating, however, is very accurate. Basically, anything radioactive decays at a certain probability over time... that's what a "half life" is: the time in which half of the thing will have decayed away. This may seem a little random, but is very accurate because of the numbers involved: when you get to huge numbers (like the numbers of atoms in even a grain of sand is an unimaginably huge number), the process becomes very predictable.
Different things decay at different rates, and that's what you need to use to date things... Carbon-14, what's used for carbon dating has a half life of 5,800 years or so... and is excellent for measuring things from about 1,000-25,000 years old (it might be +/- 5-10 years, but on that scale, it doesn't really matter)... but couldn't be used for something hundreds of millions of years old, like rocks. But other elements have longer half lives (Uranium-298's on the order of a billion years, for instance)... so the principle works like this:
We know how much... we'll say... Palladium (PD-107 has a half life of 6.5 million years) was in the rock when it formed by looking at what that volcano naturally produces (we'll say it's trace, like 0.00001%). Then we make the safe assumtion that since it hardened, no more palladium has worked its way into the framework of the mineral... so any amount that's less must be lessened because of radioactive decay... so if we find that this mineral sample has 0.0000025% (1/4 the ammount), we know it's 2 half-lives old, and thus must be about 13 million years old.

Now, as to the accuracy of radiodating: it's incredibly accurate in the time we've studied it. And back tracking it, it synchs up perfectly with other history. For instance, we have historical documents that give us the dates of the grecian, roman, and egyptian empires. And artifacts dated by radioactive means mesh perfectly with the dates obtained other ways... so if you want to believe that the earth is 6,000 years old and radiodating is bunk, you have to believe that when we measure things 2,000 years ago with the romans spot on... and then 5,500 years ago with the egyptians spot on, then that's science working. But if I go to to some precursor civilizations that were 6500 years ago... all of a sudden the science breaks down and goes ape-wild. So basically, they're saying that God made the world look like it was billions of years old just to **** with us... I can't prove that he didn't... but if s/he did, s/he did a darn good job... But then, I can't prove that God didn't create the world last tuesday, and just make it look older and give us all random memories of time before then. It's just as logical as saying the other story.

Answer 2

Simple answer: you can't. At least, you can't find info about the lies being taught that aren't lies in and of themselves. You will be doing your son a tremendous disservice. Not only will he be missing out on the most basic principle of biology, but you'll be teaching him to silence an view that doesn't line up exactly with his.

I have a few questions: Why is your son in public school? If you're intent on sheltering your son from the truth, shouldn't you be home schooling him, using the Bible as the primary textbook?

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be overly harsh, but the bottom line is that you've just called me and nearly every one of my colleagues a liar. If you go into your meeting with the attitude that you've displayed here, then you will be doing the same to your son's teacher.

If the situation was reversed, I'm quite positive that you'd be a little snippy too.

Answer 3

This won't really answer your question, but why don't you let your son sit in on the class? I'm sure he's very strong and can make up his own mind about what is taught. Being well educated means that you know both sides of a story and can determine right from wrong.

I understand and respect your beliefs, but sooner or later your son will be exposed to situations where he may or may not be told the truth - why not let him experiment with this? If he has questions he can come to you and you should openly discuss the differences between your beliefs and the teacher's. You should also instill in him that it is up to him to decide whether he believes in this or not, without the fear or hurting your feelings or doing poorly in class. Teach him respect for other people's beliefs and he will go a long way. I truly believe that will make him a better person.

Answer 4

Science is not lying when it discusses evolution, and your teacher is not lying when he/she teaches evolution to children.

Science accepts evolution for a reason - and the reason is that there are *masses* of evidence for evolution, and none for the alternative (Creationism). Science is based on evidence and - like they say in CSI "Evidence doesn't lie".

If you hold any hopes for your son to be a scientist - he *must* learn about evolution. Even from the point of view that you feel it to be untrue: how is anyone going to come up with any evidence to disprove evolution unless they understand it fully. Seriously - if your son grows up to be the scientist who irrevocably disproves evolution, he will almost certainly earn himself a Nobel Prize for doing so.

And even if he doesn't go into science, evolution is such a crucial part of modern knowledge (vaccines against influenza are created using evolution theory, animal breeding depends on evolutionary theory, and so on) that he will be missing out on a keystone of how humanity understands the world to work.

Finally, FWIW, evolution (and science in general) are absolutely *not* incompatible with a belief in the divine.
Check the Clergy Letter Project - a list of over 11,000 priests, ministers, pastors, and similar religious leaders who believe in *both* evolution and God:
http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/religion_science_collaboration.htm
Science deals with the physical universe, and God - if He exists - does so beyond the physical universe. Science is not able to answer any questions about God.
All it can do is speak as to the literal truth, or otherwise, of certain holy texts.
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Edit:

>"First of all evolution is a theory"

This is true. But all you have done is display that you know nothing about what science is and how it works (which is the situation your son will be in if you don't allow him to be taught the full science curriculum).
To a scientist a theory means "an explanation with supporting evidence", it does *not* mean "a guess".
The theory of gravity is a theory, the theory of the atomic structure of matter is a theory, the germ theory of disease is a theory. ALL of science is "just a theory"!

Answer 5

I think you should give your son the chance to make his mind up for himself. Surely you are teaching him about genesis at home. So, could he not just take part in the lessons and decide for himself after knowing both sides of the coin?

You shouldn't deprive him of common knowledge - he will only suffer in the long run. If his belief is a strong as yours then the lessons will just help him argue better, because he understands more and won't have to ask in this forum or similar on arguments against the topic.

Answer 6

Ok, I'm not saying anything against your faith. but why would you not want your child to learn about evolution?

Honestly, you'll be hard pressed to find cold hard evidence against evolution. Esspecially any evidence that is going to make this teacher halt his entire lesson plans.

If you don't want your child in that class, request that your child do something else durring that time. Schools (in these times esspecially) should honor that. But don't go to the teacher and try to ruin a learning experience for evey other child in the class who may have some interest in evolution.

You don't need evidence to keep you shild out. Your faith and beliefs should be enough to allow your child to not sit in these classes.

However, don't be surprised if your kid's report card isn't as good as it should be. The teacher and administration is not going to wave the grading system for one kid and not for all the others. Honestly, this will probably cause more problems for the school than it's worth.

And just becasue the kid learns about evolution doesn not mean he has to believe it! We learn about Greek Mythology also but not everyone believes that it really happened! it's science and history at the same time. Let the kid open his mond to what else is out there, other theories, other ideas. It will only make him more well educated in the long run so he can intelligently debate against evolution in the future.

Seriously, your faith and devotion to it is respectable, but you're starting fires requesting this and your kid will be the only one who suffers from this.

Answer 7

I don't know if this helps you ... but I cannot recommend the following web site enough:

"Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective":
http://www.asa3.org/aSA/resources/Wiens.html

This is an outstanding introduction, written by someone who is both a Christian, *AND* a true scientist (PhD in Physics, minor in Geology, scientist at respected institutions like Cal Tech and Los Alamos, etc.). The details are an excellent introdution for *everyone* (not just Christians).

But if the details are too technical for you ... skip down to the Appendix:
"Common Misconceptions about Radiometric Dating Methods":
http://www.asa3.org/aSA/resources/Wiens.html#page%2023

Answer 8

It's so sad to me that you're hindering your child's education this way - in my opinion this is tantamount to child abuse. Your problem is that you've come to the conclusion that evolution is a lie without even researching the (voluminous) evidence. Reaching a conclusion before understanding the facts is simply ignorant. I'm sure you could find plenty of crackpot anti-evolution rant on the internet if you bothered to google the topic yourself rather than lazily asking other people to do it for you, but why you would believe something you read on the internet over information in text books is beyond me.

Answer 9

Hi,

Maybe it would be better to go in with an open mind rather than looking for points of contention with your son's teacher. Your son is probably learning about greek/roman mythology, and English Literature as well, but I'd bet that you're not searching google for the lies surrounding the legend of Dionysus.

Enough pontificating on my part, plenty of evolution information can be found at:
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

I don't know where you can find information about the lies though....

Hope that helps,
Matt

Answer 10

There are no lies and deceptions taught in schools about evolution, except what is taught in conservative religious schools. Evolution is the fundamental organizing concept of Biology. There is no scientific evidence that conflicts with the theory of evolution, just as there is no scientific evidence which conflicts with the theory of gravitation or the atomic theory of matter.

I agree that your narrow religious view of the world will do your child a great disservice when he/she grows up.

Answer 11

To be honest, if you don't want to look ignorant, ignore what you read about at dr. dino. He uses ignorance in science to make arguments. There are no actual scientific arguments against evolution. It is probably just best to say you don't accept some of modern science due to religion, and leave it at that.