Episode Details

Sparks fly when a Greek Orthodox evolution-accepting professor comes up against an Evangelical school headmaster bent on bringing in a Young Earth Creationist curriculum

Why are we doing yet another episode on Young Earth Creationism?  The biggest reason is because it’s still a very potent ideology in Christianity, especially within Evangelicalism.  YECist parents and YECist school systems do their best to instill this ideology into young impressionable minds, and the cycle repeats.  It’s a self-propagating problem which manifests in many ways throughout society: Pew Research tell us that roughly a third of American adults believe that humans have existed in their present form from the beginning of time (and many of them further believe that humans co-existed with the dinosaurs).  And a large number of people who leave Christianity (all too often shortly after they reach college/university) do so because a YECist worldview just wasn’t working for them in a 21^st century world, and they aren’t aware that many other strands of Christianity do not require that short-sighted worldview.

This week, we talk to someone who has a unique perspective on YECist education. Dr. Joel Anderson grew up in a very Evangelical world, and obtained two university degrees at very Evangelical institutions before going on to teach at the high school and college levels in very Evangelical schools.  But during those post-secondary years, he was developing his own theological worldview, reading from Anglican, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox sources.  Eventually, he found that he was most comfortable with the Greek Orthodox expression of Christian faith.  And also quite comfortable with the Theory of Evolution.  For years, he taught in Evangelical schools in the south west USA.  Until a new school headmaster arrived, one who was deeply committed not just to YECism in general, but also to all things Ken Ham.  This is the part of his story that we have much to learn from:

• at Regent College, he was exposed to a less literal, more symbolic/metaphorical view of the book of Revelation, and its literary parallels with the first eleven chapters of Genesis; this inspired him to develop new curricula for teaching high school students
• his first teaching position in California: developed a World View course/program, and another course which unpacked what he’d learned