history timeline question

Great question.  I wish I could impart some wisdom for you.  I’ll bump and sit back with my iced tea….

Good question. Glad you bumped it back up. When I’m looking for a starting point in an evolutionary-based book, I pretty much skip anything prior to and including the typical descriptions of the Stone Age with grunting cavemen, etc. (By the way, the book Life in the Great Ice Age by Beverly and Michael Oard is helpful to see how the Ice Age fits into the Biblical narrative.)

Where I start depends heavily on each book. For example, in A Child’s History of the World I start at chapter 5. Which means I must fill in the history prior to that with Genesis 1-11. For the younger children I like to go from the tower of Babel in Scripture to the various cultures and regions in the ancient world: Egypt, Sumeria, etc. Even when I read about ancient civilizations, however, I have to be careful of the year calculations they throw in sometimes.

Does that help at all or just muddy the waters?

I have told myself that to be a good teacher to my kids, I can’t be afraid to ask questions (i.e. questions I think I should know, but don’t). So, my son has become interested in dinosaurs and at the same time, I’m working on putting together a timeline in a binder so we can start adding things to it casually. He’s young, but the timeline is as much for me as for him at this point! History was never my thing, but I’d like to learn more. So, my questions. Is the existence of dinosaurs real? How does that fit with evolution and such? My faith background teaches that God is the creator and that science/evolution can be a tool God uses, but that it all begins and ends with Him. I guess I need help with how to look at early history and what is problematic for Christians. Thanks so much!