Countering indoctrination
Editorial
Released in 1979, the BBC’s Life on Earth television series made the narrator, Sir David Attenborough, famous. The 13 episodes culminated with one on human origins. The whole series ‘sold’ evolution to viewers. Attenborough told the evolutionary story as if it were factual. When combined with the stunning visual imagery and the impressive musical score, his rich narration amounted to an effective tool of indoctrination in evolution.
My wife and I watched the series with our two older children in the 1980s, when they were in primary (elementary) school. You might think, ‘What, expose your children to such evolutionary indoctrination?’ Well, we did not just leave them to watch them by themselves! We watched them with them and gave our own commentary. The episodes had lots of good factual science that gave us many opportunities to praise God and give Him the glory for His marvellous creation. But when Attenborough spun some outrageous evolutionary tale, we would laugh. In doing this, as well as sharing with them age-appropriate information, we were endeavouring to teach our daughter and older son to discern between storytelling and scientific facts.
One of the more outrageous parts sticks in my mind. In episode 6, ‘The invasion of the land’, Attenborough talked about how “350 million years ago … fish began to haul themselves out onto the land.” This supposedly explained the beginnings of land creatures, eventually becoming us. LOL! He talked about mudskippers, the coelacanth fish, lungfish, and amphibians, which are all beautifully designed to do what they do!
We need to teach our children to discern. Both are now adults and have graduated from biology-based university courses. Both believe in biblical creation.
It’s important that our kids grow up to be confident in the Bible’s creation account, because it is foundational to the Gospel, as an article in this issue of Creation explains (p. 16). And there are five things that you might not know about the first man Adam (p. 38), whose sin brought death, repaired by the last Adam, Christ, who brought resurrection.
Human history (p.18) and an archaeological relic from Egypt (p. 21) back up the Bible’s real Old Testament history from Genesis onwards.
We also have some wonderful examples of God’s designs, such as the electric motors in bacteria, which are engineering masterpieces (p. 42), the intriguing and beautiful okapi (p. 28), the precision of the sonar systems of bats (p. 36), and the ingenious way living things deal with iron (p. 46).
We show how the Flood of Noah’s day explains such things as caves (p. 48), and gold deposits—in quick time (p. 12). The collapse of Darwin’s Arch underlines that the world is not old (p. 56).
Many readers love astronomy articles, and we have a good one on the gas giant planets, in Creation for Kids (CFK) (p. 32), plus one on the James Webb Telescope, which is the most powerful in-space telescope yet—what do they hope to find? (p. 55). And we have an interview with high-powered physics professor Christopher Ting, who unashamedly believes the biblical account of creation, rather than the big bang (p. 24). And we interview our own Margaret Wieland, production coordinator for the magazine—there are some surprises here! (p. 52).
And there’s more!
Today we have a plethora of good information that refutes the storytelling of Attenborough and the like. Please share this issue; it could well help change someone’s life!
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