I believe the usual Creationist figure is 6,000 years, not 5,000--but, as someone who believes Genesis is history, albeit poeticised, I don't like the attitude that 'the Bible teaches that the earth is X years old'. The Bible does not, in fact, say how old the earth is. The 6,000 years figure is arrived at by adding up genealogies and ages in Genesis, which is kind of cunning except that genealogies in Genesis weren't necessarily father-son-father-son all the way down. 'Father of' may have meant 'ancestor of' rather than literal 'father', meaning that there could well be gaps in the chronology--either unimportant generations, deemed not significant enough to warrant mention, or generations deliberately 'blotted out' from the record because of sin, etc. So using the genealogies as 'proof' that the earth is a specific age is dubious at best--and of course, there's the theoretical possibility that Adam and Eve lived, pre-Fall, in the Garden for hundreds of years.
As a Christian who plans to homeschool, I plan to teach the theory of evolution correctly--I've seen far too many Christians who misunderstand evolutionary theory and teach a strawman, which is frankly embarrassing. (Not that I'm a hotshot scientist at all, I might add--DH is better at that sort of thing, so he'll probably take over the kids' scientific education at some point). I don't want my kids spouting nonsense like 'Evolution says we came from monkeys' or 'If evolution were true, there wouldn't still be monkeys today'. I want them to know what the theory means, how it was arrived at, its moral and sociological implications, the philosophy behind it, and so on--the whole package. Ultimately, when my children are old enough to understand, I will teach them the philosophy behind secular science as a whole, and how it is fundamentally flawed. Rather than just focussing in on evolution, I will show them how secular science of any kind, when challenged, cannot philosophically defend itself, and how on the other hand Christianity provides a cohesive worldview through which most scientific theory and practice can be logically and philosophically justified. A complicated task, which will be much more demanding than simply saying 'We're Christians, we don't believe this' or flinging them a copy of Creation magazine; but a necessary one, I think. Most Christians are simply not philosophically competent, which leads them to think in secular terms and believe that the evidence for 'the other side' is overwhelming.
How far my children will debate the evidentials I'll probably leave largely up to them, as I'm more concerned in their education with giving them a solid philosophical grounding, so they can 'fill in the blanks' throughout their lives. But if they happen to be interested in white hole cosmology or genetics, I'm sure we can hunt up some kind of learning system.
I got it for dh - who isn't a creationist and doesn't want to sit down and read a book thoroughly
He thinks I'm getting "taken" (we have different religious backgrounds) and should bone up on my evolution which I think is a ridiculous statement b/c I got plenty of evolution in jr. high, high school, and undergrad.
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