The Devolution of Evolution in Education

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Basic behind the Progressive movement in the political, the social, and the education domains, all of which overlap, is that we are evolving to more excellence.  In particular the Progressive influence in public education has been to subtract the Judeo-Christian values and to multiply the secular, evolutionary focus, which ultimately is amoral or without ultimate value—just a mixture of everything that ultimately adds up to nothing.   It is what can be called, “The Devolution of Evolution in Education.”

The concept of “devolution”, which has a variety of meanings, has in the realm of biology the meaning of “degeneration”, and that is the way I’m using it this context.  It could be argued that this word is very much like a concept I/we could call “devilution”, which is very much the work of the “devil”.  There is a scripture verse that relates well to this as it says in II Thessalonians 2:10b-11 that “because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  God allows people to stay in darkness, and the theory of evolution, when it denies the creativity of God, is certainly a strong delusion.

As children of by-gone days many of us affirmed by the pledge of allegiance that we were “One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” We were taught to reverence God and to respect his laws and directives.  This helped greatly in school discipline and educational motivation.  We were taught that the founding fathers of our nation had respect for the Judeo-Christian values and the faith handed down to them from the Bible. We were unlocking and discovering God’s truths, seeking his guidance, and under his directing eye!

Ben Franklin cited the Judeo-Christian statement from Psalm 127:1 that: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” Franklin went on to say he saw “proofs” that “God rules in the affairs of men,” and without God’s “concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building not better than the builders of Babel.”  After the constitutional convention at Franklin’s recommendation an “officiate” (chaplain) was affirmed and made official with one for the House and another for the Senate to be paid $500 each.  This was before America got so broadminded that we are now forbidding even the Chaplains in the military from praying in the name of Christ!

Our founding fathers were basically men of faith. In fact, of the 204 signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of our nation all were in varying degrees adherents to the Christian faith and the Judeo-Christian values overall.  There were eighty-eight Episcopalian/Anglican, thirty Presbyterian, twenty-seven Congregational/Baptist, seven Quaker, six Dutch Reformed/German Reformed, five Lutheran, three catholic, three Huguenot, three Unitarian, two Methodist, and one Calvinist.  There were no atheists, nor were they any Muslims!

Religious freedom has played a significant role in our history and educational focus in America as well the remainder of North America. Europeans came to America to escape religious oppression and forced beliefs upon them by such state-affiliated Christian churches as the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.  Who would have thought that over two centuries later, the bible and prayer would be taken from our educational focus or that Muslims would be given the right to pray in our public schools, while Christians would have it denied?

The Presbyterian and Reformed thinking was a leading element in the direction of American education and government. It could be argued that over forty percent of the religious thinking was very much Presbyterian and/or Reformed, if you include with the Presbyterian, the Dutch and German Reformed, the Huguenots, the Congregationalists, and other Calvinists groups.

But isn’t it sad to see that now one of our largest Presbyterian Denominations, that has shrunk in size to about half what it was 50 years ago, seems to be applauding all types of anti-Christian focus as an echo element of the Progressive movement in our land, as the positive influence inherited from Presbyterian and Reformed traditions has faded?

That civil unrest fueled the desire of America’s forefathers to establish the organization of a country in which the separation of church and state and the freedom to practice one’s faith without fear of persecution, was guaranteed. Education was central in this.  That guarantee was enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution (text) as, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” However, it could be argued today that American Public education has adopted the new religion of secular Darwinism to replace the Christian faith and Judeo-Christian values once basic in our land.

Christianity in America has more than 900 denominations. The U.S. was the first western nation to be founded predominately by Protestants — not Roman Catholics. Our history as well includes the emergence of utopian societies, religious fanaticism, and opening the door to religions as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism, but these make up a small minority. These groups are allowed freedom to practice their faiths.  But the vast majority of Americans describe themselves at least in name to be followers of the Christian religion-near ninety percent’.  And yet, in our public schooling they take from ninety percent so as not to be offensive to the other ten percent.

The devolution of evolution in American public education is the fantasy that we have evolved past values that made our nation great to a new day of change, where the directives of the Bible are classified as just one ancient world view.

Some of the books the atheists hold in high esteem are Darwin’s, The Origin of the Species, and The Decent of Man, basically showing creation explained without reference to God. Coupled with this are books like Sam Harris’ book, The End of Faith, which basically I feel attacks the form of religion but misses the spiritual substance. Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian, is greatly concerned with the problem of evil, in particular the evil caused by religion, as he sees it, but misses the freedom inherent in knowing God personally through Christ Jesus.  There are various works by Karl Marx that really diagnoses Christianity in respect to class conflict.

I’ve read most all of these at least in part and feel the faith they reject, I would reject as well, for they do not see the truth of God’s Logos, the living word of God being personified in the person of Jesus Christ. They attack the surface, but they miss the heart!   One of the basic fallacies in the atheistic arguments is they fail to see our estrangement as a result of our sin, either by denying it or altering it—not seeing really what sin means!

Atheists are critical of biblical law, and there is nothing in their worldview where they can maintain anything either right or wrong, and therefore they must have an amoral value system, one without morality.  God breathed into man the “breath of life and man become a living soul,” which was God’s spiritual image breathed into humanity.  The word “Adam” means in Hebrew, “humankind”, and God breathed into us the breath of life.  God did not do this to other animal life! Humanity is a special creation, and we are called to be moral creatures.  The devolution of evolution seeks to make humanity just an educated ape and we are wondering why on earth do we find the bottom falling out of morality and so many of our youth seemingly devoid of purpose and direction?

Our forefathers wrote: “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’  They didn’t say, “Men are evolved equal by evolution with certain unalienable rights.”  If the atheists are right and we are but products of evolution our founding documents for our nation are totally invalid, for they refer to the Creator, not to a blind process of the survival of the fittest.

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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