What About Other Views?

If we teach creationism, shouldn’t we teach the creation myths of other religions and cultures?

What about the various creation myths of the Native Americans, or of Buddhists, or of Japanese Shinto, or of Amazon tribes.

Why should the Christian view be the only contrary view to Darwinism?

Please tell me.

—R.S., U.S.

Thank you for writing. It seems you are asking two overlapping questions, one about education (what we should teach), and one more broadly about what views contradict Darwinism (what we should believe). Furthermore, it appears on both counts you are making a presumption about what we believe/advocate.

If we teach creationism, shouldn’t we teach the creation myths of other religions and cultures? What about the various creation myths of the Native Americans, or of Buddhists, or of Japanese Shinto, or of Amazon tribes.

This question deals with education. However, your question seems to be based on the assumption that we at Answers in Genesis advocate teaching (i.e., in a public school setting) Bible-based, young-earth creationism.

In fact, we don’t believe legislators should require Bible-based, young-earth creationism as part of public school curricula; what we want is honest, open discussion about the origins controversy and the problems in evolutionary theory.

We do want the defects of Darwinism taught, along with scientific alternatives.

If biblical creation were instituted as part of public school science curricula, some evolutionist teachers may not teach it accurately, and that’s not what we or Christian parents would want, either. But we do want the defects of Darwinism taught, along with scientific alternatives. We also believe it would be better for students’ critical thinking skills if they were taught to separate the unprovable, religious elements of Darwinism (e.g., the natural origin of life on earth, for which there’s virtually no evidence) from observable science, like natural selection (which is explained and utilized as well in the creation model as it is by Darwinism).

None of these steps require explicit biblical teaching, nor would they require teachers to bring up the creation myths of Native Americans, Buddhists, or other groups (except perhaps to point out widespread cultural beliefs in creation, flood legends, etc.).

Of course, a much bigger goal for Answers in Genesis is to help Christian parents and pastors/churches take responsibility for training up Christian youth by teaching them (among other things) why we can rely on Scripture. This extends to Christian and home schools as well.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to the creation/evolution controversy in public schools is that evolutionists haven’t succeeded in removing religion from the science classroom; in fact, what recent litigation has essentially established is that only one religion—Darwinism—is allowed to be presented. (See also “Can Public Schools Be “Neutral”?”)

Why should the Christian view be the only contrary view to Darwinism? Please tell me.

Again, since you’re directing the question at us, it seems you’ve presumed this is something we’ve said. Obviously, we recognize that there are many religions that have creation stories incompatible with Darwinism. We don’t think the Christian view has a monopoly on anti-Darwinism; for instance, there are Muslim and Jewish creationists as well as anti-Darwinists who aren’t religious, such as the late Fred Hoyle and Francis Crick, as well as Michael Denton.

Just because Christianity isn’t the only view contrary to Darwinism doesn’t mean it can’t be any more right than the other contrary views, however. After all, Christianity was around long before Darwinism—it doesn’t stand or fall on how “anti-Darwin” it can be.

As Christians, our starting points are the Word of God and the God-Man Jesus Christ. Apologetics is the field devoted to providing a logical defense of our Christian faith, giving a reason for the hope that we have. We believe that Scripture is exclusive truth (as it attests of itself (Psalm 119:160; John 17:17)) and invite you to investigate some of the links on this page to understand why the Bible is the word of the only God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), who created the universe (Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 40).

In Christ,
A. P. Galling, AiG–U.S.