The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

After teaching biology on a college level in Christian schools for over 20 years, KPWfinally made a first attempt at creating a biology textbook with a biblical worldview perspective. By no means does he claim to have achieved his goal. He hopes, however, that he has inched closer to that goal. A truly biblical perspective of biology would require a biblical epistemology of science, a biblical philosophy of science, and a synthetic creationist biology. None of those things exist at this point in time. For the sake of young people being trained even more soundly in a biblical worldview of biology, we pray these disciplines are developed and integrated into our textbooks, and that this happens sooner rather than later. This paper purposes to review the content of KPW’s text ( Devotional Biology ), explain how it has been used, and present data on its impact on students. THE DEVOTIONAL BIOLOGY TEXT KPWauthored Devotional Biology as a textbook for a one-semester, college-level, conceptual biology course. He composed the first rough draft in the academic year of 2011/12 as he taught such a course at Truett-McConnell College (as of 2016, Truett McConnell University). Since then, the text has been revised multiple times, especially after review by two theologians and four biologists from different academic institutions. Since the Fall of 2012, the text has been printed and spiral bound by the Truett McConnell bookstore. Besides revisions of the original text, questions and an appendix critical of naturalistic evolution were added in the 2012 edition, chapter summaries were added in 2013, and a glossary was added in 2015. Future additions will include more illustrations, more references, and a second appendix critical of theistic evolution. Supplementary material includes a lab manual developed in association with the original text in 2011, lecture videos created for an online course in 2013, PowerPoints added in 2014, a test bank added to the online course in 2015, and lecture videos, test bank, lab manual, and lab kit revised for a homeschool course in 2017. 1. Topics Devotional Biology focuses more on the concepts of biology than it does on the details of biology that are believed foundational for training a professional biologist. Thus, Devotional Biology is designed as a biology text for the college student who is not a biology major— i.e. , it is a ‘conceptual biology’ or ‘general biology’ text. It should be noted, however, that because Truett McConnell University values the biblical worldview, all their students are required to take the course that uses Devotional Biology as its text— even the biology majors . Typical of conceptual or general biology texts of a secular nature, Devotional Biology introduces the reader to the nature of science, the nature of life, inorganic and organic chemistry, DNA structure and function, the origin and diversification of life, cell theory, cell structure, cell metabolism (especially photosynthesis and aerobic respiration), cellular reproduction (especially mitosis and meiosis), Mendelian genetics, life’s nested hierarchal classification, biodiversity, animal behavior, community ecology, ecosystems (including biogeochemical cycles), biodiversity, and biomes. Devotional Biology does not cover plant or animal anatomy or physiology and it does not survey life’s diversity. These are rather typical topics of a second semester of biology for non-majors. Devotional Biology is thus an appropriate textbook for a semester- long course when that is the only conceptual biology course a college offers, or it is an appropriate textbook for the first semester of a two-semester non-majors biology sequence (with another textbook required for the second semester). There are a number of patterns and concepts in biology that are difficult to explain by naturalistic evolution. It is not surprising that such things rarely get included in introductory biology textbooks. If they are discussed at all, they are usually relegated to upper- level courses as intellectual challenges. Several of these topics are readily explained in a creationist perspective of the world. For this reason, Devotional Biology introduces the reader to several additional topics not generally found in secular biology texts ( e.g. the presuppositions of science, the anthropic principle, biological beauty, biological discontinuity, and biological disparity). A few more topics (which become especially important in a young-age creationist perspective of the world) are given substantially more emphasis in Devotional Biology than is typically encountered in secular texts ( e.g. biological (natural) evil, baramins and baraminology, and the biomatrix). 2. Perspectives More fundamental than the major topics covered in the text, Devotional Biology has a suite of perspectives which markedly distinguish it from other biology textbooks—even, in some cases, other Christian or creationist biology textbooks. A. Biblical Worldview Devotional Biology is up-front and non-apologetic about its biblical worldview. In the wide spectrum of worldviews that are available, the text consistently applies only two worldviews to biology—naturalism and Christian theism. Naturalism is included because this worldview dominates biology and biology textbooks, so it is a worldview with which every student of biology should be familiar. Yet, because it is not the worldview of the author, the naturalistic worldview perspective of each topic is not even mentioned until the Christian theistic view has been fully presented and explained. And then, naturalism is almost always critiqued— in chapter after chapter shown to be inadequate to explain the major characteristics of biology. In contrast, the text clearly advocates a Christian theistic perspective. And it is important to note the worldview advocated is not just a theistic worldview, it is Christian theistic worldview. One of the main themes of the text is that God illustrates His invisible nature through the physical creation. Not only is this concept clearly taught only in the New Testament, but only the Christian God is so desirous of relationship with humans that He would make the universe that way. Furthermore, whereas the Triune God provides an explanation for the diversity and hierarchy of life, a monistic god, such as is worshipped in modern Judaism and Islam, does not explain the hierarchy and extreme diversity of life. Consequently, the Devotional Biology text is not only unacceptable in secular academia, it would be unacceptable in Jewish and Muslim academic environments. Thus, the worldview perspective of Devotional Biology is much more specific than Christian theism. Devotional Biology adopts a conservative Christian position, upholding a very high view of Scripture. Devotional Biology accepts Scripture as truth, and its Wise et al. ◀ Devotional Biology ▶ 2018 ICC 256