Some people have accused Creationist Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis (AiG) of driving away young people from the church, but now Ham is coming to his own defence and is blaming the public school system and the secular media for teaching kids the wrong things about Genesis.
"Many Christians who compromise with millions of years and/or evolution accuse me and Answers in Genesis of driving young people away from the church. They say that our supposedly 'anti-science' (really anti-naturalism and anti-atheist assumptions smuggled into science!) stance harms the church by making generations think that Christianity is anti-intellectual and not relevant to the current generation," he wrote on his blog.
"They also claim that we are lying to kids and that, when these children get older and realise they've been lied to, they will reject all of Christianity because we've told them that if they can't believe Genesis, then why can they believe the Gospels? But is this really true?"
Ham gave a resounding "no" to the question, saying the reason why young people leave the church and Christianity is because they have not been taught about apologetics at all.
"Today's generation is indoctrinated from a young age to believe in evolution and millions of years through the secular media and the public school system (85–90 percent of students from church homes attend public schools)," he explained. "They are telling our young people that they cannot trust the Bible because science has proven it false."
Ham said the media and the public school system are able to discourage the youth from the Christian faith because they are not getting the answers they need from their own churches and parents. It is inevitable then that the youth will see a contradiction between modern science and the teachings of the Bible, he said.
If pastors, youth leaders, and their parents fail to deal with the indoctrination from the media and the public school system, the children's belief on Christian faith will naturally weaken, he said.
"That's why AiG is working so hard to equip the church to answer the questions that young people have," he said. "We need to show them that science confirms God's Word beginning in Genesis, not secular ideas about the past."
