Intro Review (review at bottom)
This was the textbook I used in high school. I think it's important to note a few things before reading this review 1. I will not partake of arguments as I am no longer in high school. If your ideas are great, write a book. I will present rebuttals to common arguments that you may have after reading this book 2. This book is HIGHLY misunderstood. Before ever writing about the book itself, you must read the introduction:
"Biology for Christian Schools is a high school textbook for bible-believing Christians. Those who do no believe that the bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God will find many point in this book puzzling. This book was not written for them.
"Between true science, (those things that can be accurately observed and measured) and the bible there are no contradictions. After all, the one who wrote the bible also created the things that scientists can observe. Men, however, can make mistakes in their observations, or they may reach a faulty conclusion from what they observe"
It is upon this basis that the rest of the book was written. I think it's unfair to look at this book as something of a surprise when those are the first two paragraphs it states.
With that being said, true science knows that there are limitations, because science is an art of observation. Science neither proves nor disproves the existence of God from a objective standpoint. There may be things observed by science that might make a Christian say "A sign of a creator", but ultimately, trying to argue spiritual aspects based on scientific observations is a little retarded. This book points something out that is very true: sometimes we are wrong in our studies. But something it failed to point out, is sometimes we misunderstand the bible as well. It's not so much that the bible says something, but that we misunderstand, or we settle for a translation, when the original text says something else. The bible, whether seen as God's word or not, has proven itself historically. It affirmed the existence of Hittites who we thought didn't exist, and even told us about Belshazzar, who we didn't know existed either. Some might say "But it says that Nebuchadnezzar was his father" which is true, but the word used for father is not the same thought that ours has. It means more of a ancestor idea, not necessarily male, and not necessarily immediate father. With that being said, this book relies heavily on the bible, and if you do not hold the same convictions of it being the word of God, this book is not for you. I don't know how the author could have said it any clearer. However, I have taken pains to simply defend the bible in the hopes that people will not come here and start an argument mis-quoting the bible, and misusing science. This book tries to show how the two fit.
Just to counter an argument before it starts, the bible does not say anything about the earth being young, that is a common misconception, also started by a misunderstanding of the genealogies and the words translated. But this is not a argument or review of the bible, so I will move on. My only point in throwing that in is to say "Science" does not PROVE or disprove many things as held commonly as fact, for instance, macro evolution, the stone age, how old the earth is, etc. There are many possible causes, and for once, this book presents Christian possibilities that do NOT refute scripture.
This book is very interesting. It presents the most common anti-biblical views, then refutes them, and then tells different Christian views. It has many great sections on other topics, such as the nervous system, the classification of organisms, and different zoological sections. It's a lengthy textbook, and well written for what it is. Sadly, the author can be a little biased in some areas, like not admitting that his perception of what the bible is saying might be wrong. I would advise an analysis of your scientific "proof" or data, including what you are and are not accounting for, and then I would advise a hermeneutical study of what you think the bible is saying. This book is far from being all-inclusive, and does not give much room for more liberal Christians or syncretist views. If you want a Christian science book that does not downgrade scripture, this book will be great for you, but do not settle for it being "the last" science book you'll need.
In closing, you don't have to kiss your brain goodbye to read this textbook, and you don't have to separate science or history from the bible. Don't allow a misunderstanding to draw you to hasty conclusions. I have attempted to write this review in such a way that the common person can understand it. This review was written with the other reviews in mind, as well as my own study of this book, and my personal study and education. (P.S. If you are a Christian and don't like what I said, just remember that your translation of the bible is just that: a translation. You can't get nitty-gritty about a translation. That's just plain silly.)
REVIEW:
This is a high school level textbook teaching biology to a Christian audience. It is introductory, and should not be seen as a means of furthering a serious education in biology, regardless of religion. For review, for high school studies, or for introductory CHRISTIAN studies, I highly recommend this book as a start. It has three sections: science of life, science of organisms, and study of human life. Within these three units it gives discussion to many topics, including: chemistry of life, cytology, continuity of life, microbiology, botany, zoology and more. For more information on the personal views or bias present in the book read above introductory review. In the text are scattered pictures, word definitions, cartoon panels (usually to prove a point), side articles, and examples. There are also pictures of different people, and checkpoints throughout the chapter with a big review section at the end. Not overly difficult, but for the grade level, it will cause the reader to at least mostly grasp the material presented. There are many sections which do not speak for all Christianity, and are not very in-depth. For example, many Christians and non-Christians believe in Micro-evolution, that is the evolution in a family group, including changes of the specific animal, which can be almost completely proven, though there are still those who argue against it. Macro-evolution, the theory that animals mutate across family connections, like a monkey into a man, are not proven, as we can not observe this phenomena occurring. With that said, this book does not make a difference, and just claims all evolution as un-biblical. Sometimes in this book, ideas are presented, and if you aren't on the same page as the author, it may seem as though he is contradicting himself, when upon further study it turns out he is not. Be carefully for these parts, and if you have a son/daughter using this textbook, be sure to know what the author is addressing so you can clear up issues. This book also address the age of the earth, while addressing different views. It should be noted that the author is biased towards scripture as the word of God, and infallible. I also believe this, so it causes no problem for me, but it does not do a good job of presenting all different theories and ideas. In my opinion we should teach everything: creationism, big bang, etc. Science can not prove or disprove any of these things, so we should leave the matter of debate and faith up to the individual student. How can we say "I will only teach this certain view", when that view can not be for sure proven? Rather, as true scientists, we should note our limitations in our study and not be biased. For example, there are many things in history that we didn't even know about, like the HIttites. Then, all of a sudden, we found proof of their existence. Not to say that the bible did not previously state that they were there, but from a view of the bible not even being historical (which is a big mistake), we had no clue that they ever even existed. It's not that we were intentionally wrong, but we were unaware of an error. That same idea should follow through to our scientific views. I said all that to say, just as this book claims, it holds a presupposition that the reader is a bible believing Christian. THAT'S who it was written for. So do yourself a favor and don't aggravate yourself. Don't want to know Biology from a Christian perspective? DON'T GET THE BOOK!!!
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