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Letters from the Universe

Monday, 1 Oct 2007 at 12:51 pm

So I was a little envious of my wife. She got to teach our daughters a cool story about a Heavenly Father swooping down and creating everything. The basics of the story any toddler can comprehend. And she had cool pictures to back her up.

Then I try to teach them about evolution and modern cosmology and it just doesn’t grab their attention. I don’t have personal experience of how to teach children about evolution and so on because my parents are creationists. There are amazingly few books aimed at really young children on the subject. At least I couldn’t find many. I tried to make it up as I went, but I was doing a pretty crumby job of telling the story.

“So you see, the mammals evolved into apes and then into human beings. Isn’t that cool?”

“…”

So, anyway, I was a bit jealous.

Then I found a delightful trilogy of books that take us from the first moments of the Big Bang to modern humans. They take the form of a letter from a personified Universe to the reader. The Universe tells its own story in colorful, comprehensible terms. The words are accompanied by equally colorful illustrations. The reader is placed in the middle of an epic adventure of truly universal proportions.

Born with a Bang starts with the big bang and ends with the formation of planet earth. Along the way we learn about inflationary theory (really!), particles and anti-particles, the formation of hydrogen, the birth of stars and galaxies, and how we are made of the stardust from a supernova. The second and third books, Lava to Life and Mammals that Morph, which I have read fewer times so far, tell our story from abiogenesis to the development of modern humans. I’m no astrophysicist or paleontologist, but everything seems to check out. The authors stuck close to the current scientific understanding.

Any books that can get my four-year-old asking about atomic forces, comparing black holes to bathtub drains, and remembering why grass grows from the bottom-up deserve an A+ in my book.

The books are too long for my two-year-old, though I think she would like the story and illustrations if I just skimmed through. Each page has boldface text which convey the central idea. I think the authors may have intended it just for the purpose of shortening the story for those with a short attention span. I plan to try it out soon.

To top off all the learning about science, the Universe uses its own story to teach the reader important lessons like life is risky, we have to work toward our dreams, diversity is important, and so on.

While this book makes no mention of religious ideas, it is not hostile to religion either. I believe that a religious parent who accepts the current scientific theories (even the Pope accepts the theory of evolution) can benefit from these books. If God acted through the Big Bang and evolution, then these books tell God’s creation story in an inspiring way.

These books present an engaging creation myth that isn’t fiction. I got the books in the hopes of teaching my girls about current scientific theories about human origins. I ended up being inspired by my place in the story of the universe.

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6 Comments

  1. Lincoln Cannon said,

    October 1, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

    These look great. Thanks for the recommendation! I just ordered them for my children.

  2. Herman Cummings said,

    October 1, 2007 @ 5:35 pm

    Teach Your Children the Truth, But Learn it First Yourself!!

    This is the only book ever written that reconciles the first day of Moses (24 hrs), the Fourth Day of Moses (24 hrs), and the
    600+ million year fossil record. This is the explanation that many people, who are looking for the truth of Genesis, have been trying to find. It reveals the scientific evidence that God showed to Moses, and the reoccurring extinctions and restorations of Earth’s ancient past history. Everyone that wants to tell others of the truth of the Bible should first learn the facts themselves from this book, so that the Word of God will not be misrepresented.

  3. Jonathan Blake said,

    October 1, 2007 @ 6:00 pm

    Herman,

    I’ve removed the details of the book that you mentioned. I have a strong suspicion that this is your own book.

    I also suspect that this is basically blog spam. If I’m wrong and you’re going to actively contribute to the discussion, please feel free to post the book info again. But honestly, the book’s description isn’t promising:

    Almost all of so-called Bible believers are not ready to face the truth and admit that traditional theology has never understood the Genesis text. They live in a delusion, and until they are bitten in the face with the truth, creationists are going to keep their heads in the sand, and keep adhering to the “same old” false and ridiculous doctrines. But now, the truth of Genesis has been uncovered, authenticating the Word of God. Fifteen years ago, this author discovered undeniable evidence of a Divine Creator, and even secular science will have to admit that it is more than “a convenient coincidence” that Genesis reveals more about prehistoric life on Earth than was ever known before. Genesis gives documented proof that mankind has been on Earth for more than sixty million years.

  4. Jonathan Blake said,

    October 2, 2007 @ 7:41 am

    Lincoln,

    Let me know how the go over with your children. I’m probably just ignorant of what’s out there, but science books for young children seem like an under-served genre.

  5. T. said,

    October 2, 2007 @ 7:54 pm

    Hi! My 7-year-old son devoured all three volumes (Born/Lava/Mammals) in the space of a weekend and kept thanking me for the “very interesting” books. My favorite moment was when he announced, “I’m on my first eukaryote.” Had to blog about that one!

    I’m new to your site and have enjoyed perusing it. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle of the road here as a theistic evolutionist, or a person of faith (broadly defined!) who’s willing to consider many ways of understanding the world and our existence in it.

  6. Jonathan Blake said,

    October 3, 2007 @ 7:12 am

    Welcome, T. I think my four-year-old is still a bit young to really appreciate the books like you son seems to, but she’s still getting lots of good stuff out of them.

    I aspire to be a “truthist”, following wherever the truth leads. The tricky part seems to be deciding what’s true. :)

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