The American Humanist Association (AHA) is an organization that actively promotes the worldview that “reason and science are the best ways to understand the world around us, and that dignity and compassion should be the basis for how you act toward someone else.”1 With hundreds of local chapters, over six hundred thousand social media followers, extensive political activism, and ad campaigns on TV, radio, billboards, and buses, the AHA is highly influential.
One initiative of the AHA, a website called Kids Without God (kidswithoutgod.com), welcomes young visitors to its home page, saying, “Welcome to Kids Without God, a site for the millions of young people around the world who have embraced science, rejected superstition, and are dedicated to being Good Without A God!” Young kids can read a short online book called Meet Darwin, watch a handful of science videos, and get instructions for a variety of simple science experiments. The statement is obvious: kids “without God” are kids who believe in science rather than in God.
A brief overview of Meet Darwin will help you more fully appreciate how the AHA wants kids (and everyone else) to see the relationship between science and God. The text introduces kids to a fun little dog named Darwin who loves to learn about the world through science experiments. The reader then learns that Darwin also enjoys stories from a “long, long time ago.” He acknowledges that some people still believe those stories, but he knows they aren’t real. Instead of believing in ancient books about gods, Darwin is a humanist who believes in being a good person. The book concludes, “Darwin loves using his imagination, but he only believes in things he can see in the real world. Things like friendship, and being nice, and learning.”
Apparently, Darwin the Dog doesn’t believe he can know anything from history, since he can’t presently see those things in the “real world.” And he’s barking up the wrong tree of knowledge if he automatically rejects the truth of a document just because it was written long ago. But then again, he’s a dog, so we’ll give him some grace on his lack of critical thinking.
We humans, however, need to understand the poverty in the overarching idea that a person must choose between science and belief in God—a false dichotomy that’s becoming a given in the public mind today. It’s especially important for parents to know that the belief that Christianity is anti-science has become a leading reason why many young adults are walking away from faith. Researchers at the Barna Group have found that 29 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds with a Christian background say churches are “out of step with the scientific world we live in,” and 25 percent say “Christianity is anti-science.”2 The fact that more than a quarter of kids from a Christian background have accepted this harmful and false secular narrative should raise a giant red flag of concern for us as Christian parents. (As a side note, the Barna Group’s research has also found that only 1 percent of youth pastors address any issue related to science in a given year. Don’t be tempted to think you can pass this subject off to your church to handle on your behalf.3)
So how should we tackle this seemingly huge science versus God debate with our kids? That’s what part 2 is about. In part 1, we discussed some specific scientific findings and their relevance to the question of God’s existence, but in part 2, we’re addressing broader philosophical questions about the relationship between God and science. By the end of this section, you’ll be well on your way to being able to explain to Darwin the Dog why he needs to think more deeply about the relationship between science and God before he stars in his next book. More importantly, you’ll be ready to have these discussions with your kids.
Three Keys to Impactful Conversations about Science and God