Wow, what an old school thread I've missed . . . I have so much to say- sorry in advance for the wall of text.

First off, regarding quality of education and AP stuff, ect. I can tell you that the girl I was referring to earlier took AP tests this weekend and is likely going to be able to skip college courses. And I can also say this- her mother does not seem to be extraordinarily learned or brilliant. I assume that they made heavy use of co-ops and whatever, but I know she got a better education than I received.

Regarding Christian education, at some point it is impossible to provide an education without siding one way or another on fundamental issues. Studying history (and most other subjects) without the context of God's movement within it is vastly different than studying it with a belief in a Christian God. It is certainly not correct to subject non-believers (or believers of other faiths) to a state sponsored education which preaches Christianity, but it is equally incorrect (in my opinion) to deny a believer's viewpoint- there are some subjects in which your belief in God does impact what is taught. This is an impossible situation in a public school situation (because you have to pick a side- choosing to leave God out of it has ramifications), but private and home schools do offer options for believers.

Regarding Creationism, the argument for Creationism is a philosophical one (and in my opinion, pretty air tight), not scientific OR Biblical. The Bible gives almost no argument for the existence of God as a creator- it just assumes He did and tells how he did it. Evolution, if accepted as true, does not come close to denying a Creator. It states how life came to be as it is, but not how it got there in the first place. The philosophical argument is that every created thing must have a creator, which is a self evident statement. It logically follows that at some point, the stuff that makes up our existence must have been created by something that itself was not created. This is the argument for a creator, though not necessarily the creator who is personally involved in the creation and falls far short of establishing the creator is the God of the Bible.

In my opinion, the issue with evolution and the Biblical account (if you accept the Bible as the rule of faith) is not one of the literal account (the John will probably disagree with me here). There are plenty of examples where our understanding of scripture has changed due to the findings of science- Galileo being a prime example. It is not that the Bible was was invalid- the scriptures that people were interpreting to disprove Galileo were being interpreted by flawed human beings and used against their intended (by God) purposes. When science and the Bible seem in conflict, it is not the fallibility of either that is in question; it is the result of flawed people interpreting either science or scripture. One big issue I have on both "sides" is that rather than approaching this stuff with humility it's easier to lob grenades at one another and hide behind assurance of superiority, either of understanding of science or faith.

Back to evolution, though, the reason that it is difficult for me to swallow as the way humans came about is a theological one. That is, for humans to have been evolved (even by God through theistic evolution), this requires that death exist within creation BEFORE the fall of man and the entry of sin into the world. For the redemptive story to make sense as presented in scripture, death is the result of sin and therefore there could be no death before the fall of man. This rules out evolution as a pre-condition for humans, but it does not rule out evolution in a fallen world.

My own personal opinion (not backed up by any theologian or deep thinker, and so probably not true!), is that we can probably tell next to nothing about what a pre-fallen universe looked like because the instant sin entered the world, the game changed completely. What we observe today is the natural world as the result of human sin, not the perfect world God created (that had no sin or death), and therefore any conclusions we might draw as to what happened before the fall is invalid. I have 0 issue accepting evolution is alive and at work today, but I do not think it was in operation before the fall of man and sin's entry into the world.

When it comes down to it, since I believe that a study of what happened before the fall of man from a scientific perspective is worse than useless, I do not want my child to expend time trying to make sense of teachings that do not line up with what he accepts as the truth, assuming he ends up sharing my faith (which I acknowledge, he may not). On the other hand, if someone does not accept the fall is what put us into our current state where death exists in the world, it makes all the sense in the world to explore beginnings, as impossible a task as I think that is. It's an impasse, though, and one that demonstrates how a public education system cannot help but take sides. It's not a great solution, but private education certainly allows everyone to get the education that makes sense for them.

All of what I'm saying here might be tainted by this next statement, but I always have been honest to a fault. You should know that right now I am going through a MASSIVE struggle of faith. The above is what I believe as best as I can state it, but the circumstances of my life are pressing me very hard right now. None of my faith struggle is related to the stuff we're discussing right now, but it may affect how passionately I defend my position in the next few weeks/months.