apologetics Archives - Growing In Grace

Apologetics for kids: a review (How do we know God is really There?)

August 9, 2013Tracy

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Kids ask some tough questions, challenging our knowledge of physics, biology, and especially our faith. Why is the sky blue? Why doesn’t a ball keep rolling? Why does my tummy growl when it’s hungry? How do we know God is really there? I don’t know about you, but I like to be equipped to give them good answers, answers that will equip them for sharing and defending their faith—apologetics for kids!

Melissa Cain Travis’s book How do we know God is really there? does an excellent job of defending the faith in a way that is easily understandable on a child’s level. It’s simple apologetics for kids that follows an engaging story line. The story takes place as a conversation between father and son as they look through a telescope in a treehouse. The dialogue throughout the story is relatable and makes the content easy to follow. The book is recommended for children ages 6 and up. However, it would be helpful for your child to understand the basic ideas of galaxies, time, and space.

The book takes a “first cause” approach to answering the question. In other words, it takes us back to “how did all this get here in the first place.” The book addresses discoveries from Edwin Hubble (that objects in space are moving further apart) and presents a case that the opposite also has to be true (in reverse, all those objects would come closer and closer until they collided into nothingness). Something outside of time and space with a desire to create (a person) had to have initiated the “something from nothing.”

Our children are 6 and nearly 5, at the lower end of the recommended age, but they thoroughly enjoyed the book and illustrations. My husband used this book during our family Bible time in the evening, taking the time to explain some things as we went along. My children did not understand everything, but it was a great starting place for us. And the kids enjoyed it enough to ask for us to read the book on the following night as well.

Apologetics is really important to our family, important enough that my husband is pursuing a master’s degree (his second) on apologetics. So not only is this kid-approved, it’s Hubby-approved too. (wink!)

Because our children are young, this will be a book we read to them a few different times as their understanding grows. I love being able to not only lay a foundation of apologetics in their life at a young age, but also to lay the groundwork for our astronomy study this next year in school. I will be bringing this book out a lot as we study more about galaxies and outer space!

I was very impressed with this book and would highly recommend it. Answering our children’s questions is one of our most important jobs as we disciple them. Having help to answer those tough questions—priceless!

You can preview samples of How do we know God is really there? at Apologia Press. The book is available for purchase for $16 both through Apologia Press, Melissa Cain Travis’s website, and Amazon.com.

How do we know God is really there? is the first in the Young Defenders series to be written and published, and I’m thrilled to begin collecting this series for my kids.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Apologia’s I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist review

August 17, 2012Tracy3 Comments

I have long been fascinated by the apologetics resources that Apologia has been publishing for homeschool students, so I jumped at the chance to get to review this particular high school/adult course for the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek. Also, my husband is pursuing an advanced degree in apologetics, and I thought this would be a terrific opportunity to interact with him about some of the same ideas and arguments that he is studying.

Though I am far from having completed this course, I will say that I think it is an absolute must for high school students and would even make a terrific adult Bible study, Sunday School class curriculum, or personal study as I did. The book is thorough, beginning from the point of skepticism by answering “is there such a thing as truth, and can we know it?” However, the book is conversational and easy to read; it isn’t too technical to be helpful.

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist covers the question of truth, the problem of evil, evolution vs. Divine Design, the identity and teachings of Jesus, the resurrection, and other topics essential to defending our faith. At the end of this course, a student should be thoroughly equipped to not only identify any of these opposing arguments but also to defend his own beliefs confidently and intelligently.

Apologia Press

The curriculum that Apologia has created to accompany this book is equally as thorough and is very helpful to reinforce the content of the book. There is so much information in the book that it would be difficult to process it without the help of this curriculum. The curriculum is, in essence, a consumable workbook; though I wrote my answers in a separate notebook so that I can reuse the curriculum in the future.

Two to three weeks are recommended for completing each of the 14 chapters (plus introduction, conclusion, and 3 appendices). Each lesson included topics to discuss, terms to define, comprehension questions, discussion questions, and activities. There are also anecdotes and supplemental reading to further expound and illustrate the concepts presented in the book. The activities for the course were very practical, suggesting things like interviewing unsaved friends or family members, observing particular world views in the media, writing a summary of an argument or writing a rebuttal of an argument.

What I loved about this course is that it really eliminated the intimidation factor that is often present when we think about encountering atheists and skeptics. It was practical, easy to read, and the curriculum really helped to reinforce the book’s content. I’m a really fast reader, but the curriculum forced me to slow down and really digest the information: define terms, articulate arguments, and apply the apologetics to daily life and conversation.

The Apologia workbook is available for $33 plus an additional $16 for the book. Visit the website to preview samples of the curriculum, or find out what other reviewers thought about it at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.