Introducing
Schoolhouse Teacher:
John Riley
www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
University and 35 years of work for Dow
Chemical and other major firms. They
have shared their First Heartbeat class live
with hundreds of students at churches and
other locations. If you’d like to request that
they visit your area, you can contact them
through their website, TheFirstHeartbeat.
com. You can also enjoy their Apologet-
ics: Creation vs. Evolution class on School-
houseTeachers.com. I recently had the
opportunity to speak with John about his
passion for apologetics.
TOS: Why do you feel the debate bet-
ween Creation and evolution is so
important?
John: This debate is important because
it increases a student’s awareness about
critical issues. For example, the Bible
teaches about love for our neighbor, God
as the Designer, the value in being made
in the image of God, the moral law, and
our future eternity with Him. On the oth-
er hand, evolution teaches that our life is
pitiless indifference, design is the result of
good luck, our value is equivalent to a fish,
there is no foundation for ethics, and you
are here today and gone tomorrow.
TOS: You have an extensive background
in mechanical engineering. How did you
get started researching apologetics?
John: I recall a lecture in graduate school
where the professor spent the entire class
describing how well the heart was designed. He then concluded by saying evolution was the designer. This was my first
experience with evolution, and I could not
understand how a heart could be the result
of a series of undirected steps. Years later,
our daughter asked for help researching a
term paper on a very fundamental question: Which is right, Creation or evolution? My collection of references to answer
that question eventually grew to about 400
books, DVDs, and papers. This became the
foundation for the First Heartbeat course
built around 1 Peter 3:15: “Always being
ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks you to give an account for the hope
that is in you” (NASB)
1.
TOS: What one thing, in your opinion,
points the most clearly to God as our
personal Creator?
John: The class frequently presents Romans 1: 20 as a way to understand God.
“His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has
been made” (NASB).
2 The course reviews
many examples of “what has been made,”
from the finely tuned universe to microbiology. It emphasizes both the material
design and the information needed to
run these systems. One lesson discusses
how statistically impossible it would be
for a human heart to evolve.
The Bible teaches that what we can
know about God is clear. Although
some choose to suppress the truth, no
one will have the excuse that they did
not know. Supporters of evolution reluctantly compare design to the proverbial elephant in the room, “Design . . .
moves around . . . loudly trumpets . . .
knocks us over . . . and yet we have to
swear it isn’t there.”
3
TOS: What do you feel is the biggest de-
ception people today have fallen prey to?
John: Many very good people consider
evolution to be well-proven science with
The Bible teaches about . . . God as the Designer, and the value in being
made in the image of God.
A Teacher’s
View . . .
Bonnie Rose Hudson
