ACCS conference notes, part 5 (of 5)
Practical projects for Christian biology classes, God created man to work
I’m afraid I’m typing these final notes from a basement in Ohio, so we can no longer afford images.
Here we go.
Diane Carter: The Incorruptible God’s Biology
This talk was, for the most part, projects she does in her biology class, which is helpful.
We (she says) want to use biology to train the imaginations of students to see the world in a fresh way. We see the living God in the world he has made.
In our school, we teach:
9th grade: Physics
10th grade: Chemistry
11th grade: Biology
12th grade: Advanced Physics or Anatomy and Physiology (their choice)
We had tried Biology in 9th grade, but students then are really not mature enough to talk about evolution, they don’t really even know what questions to ask. And many of our students go into medical and environmental sciences in college, and don’t remember well the biology they learn in 9th grade.
We cover fewer subjects in biology, and cover them deeper, just: underlying principles, cells, genetics, evolution, and ecology.
We start with the spiritual aspect of biology. Romans 1:20-23. God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen. There is a temptation toward idolatrous worship of the creation itself.
We talk about biological themes found within the Bible.
The Dominion Mandate
Effects of the Fall
The appreciation of beauty, utilitarian beauty and aesthetic beauty
Man’s relation to the animals
Jesus, the last Adam
New Creation Man
We also watch the movie Temple Grandin. She was a doctor of animal science who revolutionized the cattle industry, working through her autism, with a love of animals.
And then we do a medley of projects. The first is our first semester Creature Feature. This is a talk each student will give to their classmates. We know that God has infused into the world sermons through the things he has made ('“look to the ant”). So they are instructed to pick a creature and create a 5-10 minute talk on the creature. They describe our scientific knowledge of the thing, but they also must include a wisdom application, which must start with a Bible verse. They get extra credit if they bring in a live or taxidermied specimen.
Then they do a biology scavenger hunt. Jesus used botany very much in his illustrations, so we should be savvy about our local botany too. So they have a few weeks to go around town, and find a bryophyte, find a tracheophyte, etc., and take pictures of them all. Then they give a presentation on what they found, and must also make a wisdom application from one of their photos.
Second semester, I start by sharing a painting. We talk about all the details of the painting, and then I say, “look how well this painting painted itself!”. The students are shocked, you should be praising the artist, not the painting. Ah, they have fallen into my trap. Even we tend to praise the sunset instead of the God who made the sunset.
So our theme, second semester, is creation for the glory and pleasure of God. There is a natural temptation to praise the beautiful thing instead of the creator. We should be stunned by the works of creation, but not for their own sake.
So they have a second semester Creature Feature, but now the goal is recovering the awe of God. So they have to highlight a creature we know well, but help us see it with fresh eyes, awaken new awe in it and the God who made it.
There is also a psalm writing assignment. Write a psalm about the fact that cells have something to say too (using concepts like DNA, amino acids, genes, and phenotypes in your psalm).
And then we get into evolution. Here, we don’t get caught up in the weeds. I lay out a case that evolution is a natural consequence of the Enlightenment period. We needed a new origin myth. We do talk about the science of evolution. I do talk a bit about intelligent design and the scriptural creation of “kinds”. I answer student questions, but I don’t camp here.
The book “Mapping the Origins Debate” was helpful to me. Everyone exists on a bell curve of believing in different amounts of supernatural intervention - atheists are at one extreme (none), literal seven day creationists are at the other.
And finally, we have a local ecology competition, with the goal of driving home the Dominion Mandate. Each student presents, for five minutes, on some local ecosystem. They grade each other. The winner gets a book, “The Keeper of the Bees”.
David Bahnsen: Work and Dignity in a World Gone Mad
Main point of this talk is that work is good, God created us to work. I did think… he didn’t really go into the fact that industrialization has changed how we work. For much of human history, the family working together as a unit, based in the home, was common. Bahnsen was against any idea of “work-life balance”, because work is part of life dummy. But, I would say, whatever you call it, if you’re taking a man away from his family for ten hours a day, six days a week, that actually is a problem, and Bahnsen just didn’t go into that. But his overall theme, that work is good, I heartily agree with.
And now the notes.
God (says Bahnsen) has a plan for my life, and he expects me to execute on it full time.
My goal is to fundamentally change the message of Hallmark movies. The message always is that what really matters in life is not your career, but _____________, saving the local fire station or something. “Your job is getting in the way of what really matters.” We preach this message in the Church sometimes too. I am tired of it.
But, what we in the Church are sometimes frustrated by, God made. The human person was created for the purpose of work. So yes, your mind must often be focused upon it. This theology, actually, is pretty uncontroversial, but we have emotional discomfort with it.
Everything starts in Genesis 1. This is a beautiful text. It has remarkable understatedness. God creates THE OCEANS and says, “it was good”. We get the dominion mandate. God creates mankind and says, now, “it was very good”. Only humans get the very. Only we are made in his image and likeness, with elevated dignity.
God also says to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. We under-interpret this verse when we think, “have lots of kids”. Sure, have lots of kids, that’s good. But also, the only way you’re going to fill the Earth, we are also told to create civilization. To create economies of growth. We are ordered to cultivate God’s created world.
Notice this is all before sin. That we have this job is because we are made in the image of God. “Work”, generally understood, is part of what it means to be made in the image of God.
Economics is the study of human interactions around how we allocate scarcity. Work is the verb of economics. God did not make the iPhone, but his image bearers did.
God gave us work because he loves us, it is a blessing. The curse meant that things that were beautiful (like childbirth) took on pain. But to say, as we sometimes do, that work is a result of the curse, would be like saying children are a result of the curse. No.
Work is a blessing, we are co-creators with God. We take the potentials of God’s creation, and create out of it.
When we demonize work, we may think we are demonizing some guy who ignores his family. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I wear all my hats, all the time. I am still a husband as I stand here speaking to you.
I put food on the table by going to work, but I don’t work to put food on the table. I work to be a co-creator with God.
Don’t tell people they must choose between their job and their family.
We are victims of our own success today - the whole concept of retirement. We think the purpose of work is to not have to do it anymore. The Baby Boomers were the first generation in all of human history to enter work with this in mind. Before that, retirement planning was called “death”. Our confusion was only possible because of prosperity and long mortality.
We should work until we die (although sure, the form of that work might change). I [he is 50] want some older people around to help me out. Retirement has killed mentorship.
THE END