> maybe you forgot it but here goes what they told me in middle school:
The first time I remember hearing that theory was as an adult in a public lecture by an astrophysicist at a local university. (It sounds like I may be a decade or more older than you.) The speaker recited the theory, followed by "at least, that's our current best model", as though they were a Sunday-school teacher reciting some pat explanation for "Why did God made the snake?" that they weren't entirely convinced by.
Which is pretty much exactly my point: real scientists think in terms of evidence and possible models, which are challenged and revised all the time. The lecture wasn't about the development of matter in the universe, so the speaker didn't go into the details, but presumably they knew all the problems with that model.
What's taught to children isn't typically evidence and various models. It's not even typically the most recent best model; at best it will be the best model at the time the textbook came out. At worst it might be the best model at the time the textbook's author left university.
But you know what? That's OK. Middle schoolers don't yet need to have a 100% accurate picture of how the elements formed. They more need to know that the universe is predictable and comprehensible; they need to be given a "big picture" to either decide to learn more about, if they become scientists or engineers, or to talk with scientists and engineers if they instead become managers or politicians (or even stay-at-home parents deciding whether to give their children vaccines).
In the same vein, the people at the time Genesis was written didn't need to be taught astrophysics. They needed to be given an alternate to the Babylonian creation myth.
Go look up the Babylonian creation myth on Wikipedia. The earth and humans were formed from the carcass and blood of various gods after epic battles, more or less by accident; until the gods noticed the humans and thought they'd look like good slaves. Now think about how that story answers these questions: "What is the universe like, and what is my place in it as a normal human being?"
Now read the Genesis account, where God intentionally, step by step creates things in a logical progression, bringing order from chaos. At each step he "saw that it was good", and at the end he "saw that it was very good". How does the Genesis story answer those questions differently than the Babylonian story?
That is what the original readers of Genesis needed to know, and so that's what God told them. How the elements and the planets formed is something we've been allowed to work out on our own.
The first time I remember hearing that theory was as an adult in a public lecture by an astrophysicist at a local university. (It sounds like I may be a decade or more older than you.) The speaker recited the theory, followed by "at least, that's our current best model", as though they were a Sunday-school teacher reciting some pat explanation for "Why did God made the snake?" that they weren't entirely convinced by.
Which is pretty much exactly my point: real scientists think in terms of evidence and possible models, which are challenged and revised all the time. The lecture wasn't about the development of matter in the universe, so the speaker didn't go into the details, but presumably they knew all the problems with that model.
What's taught to children isn't typically evidence and various models. It's not even typically the most recent best model; at best it will be the best model at the time the textbook came out. At worst it might be the best model at the time the textbook's author left university.
But you know what? That's OK. Middle schoolers don't yet need to have a 100% accurate picture of how the elements formed. They more need to know that the universe is predictable and comprehensible; they need to be given a "big picture" to either decide to learn more about, if they become scientists or engineers, or to talk with scientists and engineers if they instead become managers or politicians (or even stay-at-home parents deciding whether to give their children vaccines).
In the same vein, the people at the time Genesis was written didn't need to be taught astrophysics. They needed to be given an alternate to the Babylonian creation myth.
Go look up the Babylonian creation myth on Wikipedia. The earth and humans were formed from the carcass and blood of various gods after epic battles, more or less by accident; until the gods noticed the humans and thought they'd look like good slaves. Now think about how that story answers these questions: "What is the universe like, and what is my place in it as a normal human being?"
Now read the Genesis account, where God intentionally, step by step creates things in a logical progression, bringing order from chaos. At each step he "saw that it was good", and at the end he "saw that it was very good". How does the Genesis story answer those questions differently than the Babylonian story?
That is what the original readers of Genesis needed to know, and so that's what God told them. How the elements and the planets formed is something we've been allowed to work out on our own.