Hi, my son is in year 4 and has been given an assignment on “weathering and erosion at a landform in your local area”. If he could get some information and give a good talk it would be the boost for his confidence that he desparately needs. I am doing my best but have not a clue where to start. If you could point me in the right direction I would be so appreciative. [Email edited to maintain privacy.]
This assignment comes out of the new National Curriculum being implemented in schools across Australia.
Science / Year 4 / Science Understanding / Earth and space sciences
Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity
Elaborations include:
- collecting evidence of change from local landforms, rocks or fossils
- exploring a local area that has changed as a result of natural processes, such as an eroded gully, sand dunes or river banks
- considering the effect of events such as floods and extreme weather on the landscape, both in Australia and in the Asia region
This curriculum point seems harmless enough but it has profound religious implications. Depending on how it is handled, it has the potential to exploit the young child’s lack of knowledge and critical-thinking ability, and influence their attitude against biblical Christianity.
The processes of weathering and erosion can be studied in the landscape today and these processes impact our environment with gullies and sandunes and river banks.
But how do we extend these processes into the past? There are two philosophical approaches, both with religious implications.
The mainstream geological philosophy says weathering and erosion have been occurring for millions and millions of years, and these processes carved the landscape. If this assumption is true then the global Flood described in the Bible never happened. That means the Bible is not reliable in its history, so why would we trust it elsewhere? The fact is, however, that many features of the landscape are a problem for this long-age idea.
The second approach assumes Noah’s Flood was a real event. The processes of weathering and erosion observed today can only be extrapolated into the past to the time when the Flood ends, some 4500 years ago. These present-day processes are not responsible for the the major features of the landscape, which are explained by the enormous processes operating during the Flood, in particular the eroding effects of receding floodwaters. The Flood easily explains features in the landscape that the long-age geological philosophy has failed to solve.
It is said that religion should be kept out of the science classroom, in which case discussion would need to be confined to landscape features formed over the last 4000 years. But that is unlikely. So will these philosophical issues be raised in the classroom? Or will only one religious position be assumed, the one that begins with rejecting biblical history?
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