Homeschool Psych:
Preparing Christian Homeschool Students for Psych 101
and
Psychology: A Christian
Perspective
Whatever you think about psychology,
the time to deal with it is before your student goes to college.
Are you preparing your students for
the most worldview-challenging class theyll ever take in college?
Dr. Tim Rice, D. Min., LPC has written
two distinctively Christian texts to ready students for the worldview
challenges theyll face in Psychology 101 and to introduce them
to the study of Gods Greatest Creation -- the human mind.
Whatever you think about psychology
and its effect on Christian students, the time to deal with
it is now.
Do you think the study of psychology is tantamount to declaring
the Bible inadequate? Do you believe that God created psychology
when He created Mankind in His own image? Have you ever given
it much thought? Some Christians think that psychology is an
important discipline, that it is consistent with a Christian
worldview, and that it is an acceptable field of study and career
choice. Other Christians see psychology as an idolatrous and
ungodly rival religion. Some Christians think that God created
psychology when He created Mankind. Others describe psychology
as psychobabble, psycho-heresy, and the most deadly form of
modernism to ever confront the Church.
Whatever you think about psychology, the time to deal with it
is now because many Christian students go to college to become
psychologists, counselors, or social workers. Most colleges
(including Christian colleges) require students to take at the
very least take an introductory psychology class. Although there
are many Christian professors, psychology departments are home
to some of the more anti-Christian intellectuals on college
campuses. In fact, psychology professors tend to have high levels
of agnosticism and atheism and may attack the Christian worldview
as unscientific, irrational, prudish, exploitative, controlling,
inhibitive, oppressive, and naïve. Many psychology professors
also believe that Christianity is incompatible with sound mental
health, that it contributes to human suffering, and that the
intelligent believer will eventually abandon their faith.
The material taught in any introductory psychology course will
challenge a students beliefs. Christian students are not
usually well-prepared to recognize and refute modern psychologys
core philosophical assumptions: naturalism, behaviorism, humanism,
evolutionism, empiricism, moral relativism, and reductionism.
Those core assumptions are embedded, sometimes very subtly,
in modern psychologys theories and schools of thought,
and they are presented under the banner of science.
Assumptions that are wholly inconsistent with a Christian worldview
are thoroughly embedded in most psychologycourses, even at some
Christian colleges. Students need to recognize and be able to
refute the anti-Christian and anti-scientific philosophies embedded
in modern psychology. Failure to recognize those assumptions
may lead Christian students to inadvertently compromise their
Christian worldview.
If it is true that many Christian students
walk away from their faith after the first year of college,
and if that has anything to do with the teaching in college,
it may be, at least in part, because of the subtle worldview
challenges embedded in psychological theories. By simply being
forewarned and prepared in advance, students are better able
to resist believing false assumptions.
The time to deal with psychology is now because
Darwinian evolution is the new psychology. Freudian
psychology, behaviorists, humanists, and cognitive psychology
are considered by many as yesterdays news. Today, neuro-biology
and evolution are psychologys main theories. Darwin anticipated
evolutions impact on psychology in 1859 when he wrote:
In the distant future I see open fields
for far more important research. Psychology will be based on
a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each
mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown
on the origin ofman and his history (Darwin, 1859).
According to Darwin, all mental activity, even
what we think of as our Godlikeness, is ultimately nothing more
than a capacity that humans acquired, bit by bit,
through variation and natural selection. Darwinian evolution,
when applied to human psychology, reduces our consciousness,
our morality, our capacity to make decisions and judgments,
religious experience, love, empathy, altruism, hate, greed,
dreams, and everything else that makes us human to nothing more
than a bunch of neurons doing their thing. Psychology, more
so than biology, is where the theory of evolution has the most
difficulty. There are no cogent evolutionary explanations for
our higher capacities, our God-likeness. It is the
authors opinion that evolutions death knell will
not come from cellular biology, it will come from psychology.
The fight against evolution is not likely to
be won with arguments of sub-cellular irreducible complexity.
It is winnable in the arena of the incomprehensiblecomplexity
of the human mind.
It is also important to deal with psychology
because people are hurting. Christians have long been at the
forefront of meeting the worlds physical needs with food,
blankets, and shelter. But are we at the forefront of meeting
the worlds psychological needs? Too often, secular community
mental health centers serve more hurting people than they can
handle, while Christians debate whether nouthetic or Christian
counseling or just praying harder is the answer.
That is not right. Correcting the problem begins by re-claiming
psychology for Christ.
The goal for our study of psychology, just
like the study of biology, theology, history, and every other
discipline, is to understand Gods creation and, in the
words of Johannes Kepler, to think Gods thoughts
after him. Instead of surrendering psychology or falling
away in the face of the worlds beliefs and teaching, we
have a duty to put forth reasoned explanations for our worldview
in every discipline, including psychology.
That is the goal for Psychology: A Christian
Perspective. There are many excellent works that explain
a Christian worldview, and there are dozens of excellent introductory
psychology texts. But there are very few introductory psychology
texts that present psychologys content from a Christian
perspective and none, to my knowledge, intended for Christian
high school students.
I believe that the study of the soul, the mind,
and behavior are right and proper for Christians and that Christian
students should bring their worldview and become part of the
future intellectual leadership in Christian psychology.
Are they prepared?
True or False? Psychology is an idolatrous, heretical,
and ungodly rival religion that places Christians at risk
of spiritual deception.
True or False? Psychology is better described as psychobabble,
psycho-heresy,or the most deadly form of modernism ever to
confront the Church.
True or False? 70% of Christian students “walk
away” from their faith within 12 months of entering
college.
True or False? The study of psychology is tantamount
to declaring the Bible inadequate.
True or False? Christian students share responsibility
to work toward the expression of a Christian worldview in
psychology.
True or False? Christian students should prepare to
be part of the future intellectual leadership in psychology.
True or False? There is an excellent chance that your
child will take an introductory psychology course in college.
True or False? Psychology departments often are home
to the most anti-Christian intellectuals on college campuses.
True or False? The psychology 101 professor is unlikely
to be sympathetic to your child’s Christian worldview.
True or False? Instruction in modern psychology is
generally atheistic, humanistic, and evolutionary and Christian
students are often ill-prepared to confront the anti-Christian
worldview presented by modern psychology.
True or False? It is important your child is equipped
to evaluate psychology's influence in academia, the culture,
and the Church at the worldview level.