10. The two books, and a look back at Part I

The lesson, step by step

1. About this chapter

   This short chapter is the author's own view, as a Christian, of how geology and the Bible fit together. Read it as her view. Families can talk it over in their own way; this guide does not add comment either way.

2. Read the chapter together

   Read Chapter IX (pages 83 to 88). Some of her key sentences:

   How long? Men have rashly sought to answer that question,

   We must remember always that we have more Books than one given us by the same Divine Writer.

   But our safety is in a willingness to wait, and to reserve judgment,

3. Her main points

   Help your child list them in plain words:

   1. The rocks seem to tell of very long ages before people.

   2. She says no one can say how long those ages were.

   3. She points out that the Bible says "Day" and does not give a date for "the Beginning".

   4. She calls the Bible and Nature two Books by one Author, which she believes cannot really disagree.

   5. She advises patience: wait for fuller knowledge.

4. Tell it back

   Ask your child to tell back the "two Books" idea in their own words, as Giberne explains it.

5. Look back at Part I

   Write these words on cards and quiz each other, taking turns: stratified, sediment, fossil, igneous, metamorphic, stratum, fault, glacier, moraine, erratic. Your child gives a one-sentence meaning for each and, if possible, shows an example from the rock box or rock journal.

6. What we know now

   Giberne asks "How long?" and says no one can tell. Since her time, scientists have learned to measure the ages of rocks using radioactive elements in them, which change into other elements at a steady, known rate, rather like sand running through an hourglass. By this method, the earth is found to be about 4.5 billion years old.