That’s a nit, compared to having fruit trees growing before the sun was created. The answer, in both cases, is, “It’s a miracle!”
FWIW, Snopes has rated this story as “Probably True”:
Snopes has also posted a photo of what’s purported to be a second page from this quiz, provided by the person claiming to be the student’s father. Not definitive proof, but both of Snopes’s sources (the father and the father’s friend) indicate they would reveal the name of the school in June, once the school year’s over.
One of my nephews is home-schooled, and for a while was part of a more… Religious… Home-schooling circle (when my sister-in-law found out what they were teaching, he got yanked real fast). My sis-in-law gave me the science textbook they used, and I keep it around for a laugh. Some gems from it:
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All the planets have a ‘reason’ for being there, and even if we don’t know what those reasons are, G-d does, and that’s all we need to find out.
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Dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time, as evidenced by the fact that so many cultures have dragon myths (I wish I was making that up).
And my absolute favorite:
- If enough people believe in something, that means it’s probably true.
My brother made sure my sis-in-law gave me the book, just for grins, but he -refuses- to let me even bring it back into their house.
That’s dangerously close to FOAF. Seems out of character for Snopes.
I just love the second page posted on the Snopes site. The last question “The next time someone says the Earth is billions (or millions) of years old, what can you say?”
Answer: “Were you there”
Haha perfect cocky fourth grade answer.
Well, it wasn’t the kid’s idea. That’s actually Ken Ham’s trademark phrase, and in his lectures, he instructs people to say exactly that.
That said, it is fourth-grade level argumentation.
Fuckin’ photosynthesis, how does it work?
There is no fucking in photosynthesis.
More’s the pity.
But… the same exact ‘argument’ can be applied to his version! 
I’m a little suspicious of the fact that the witnesses here were posting this on an atheism forum, indicating that they have strong atheist views. But they supposedly sent their children to a religious school and were surprised to discover that school had a religious agenda. And when they did discover it, their response was to ridicule the school online rather than talk to the school administration or remove their child from the school. And when the first witness is questioned, a second witness pops up to corroborate the story. But both witnesses claim that while they have evidence to support their story they can’t show it right now.
I have to say this looks a lot more like a propaganda campaign than a real life situation.
“The next time someone says the Earth is six thousand years old, what can you say?”
Were you there??
“The next time someone says Jesus was the son of god, what can you say?”
Were you there??
“The next time someone quotes anything from the Bible, what can you say?”
Were you there??
Yeah, I like it, I might use that sometime.
Perhaps the school doesn’t create its own educational materials, but buys them from some “Christian science” organization, and the test is labelled like that so the school knows which part of their curriculum it’s supposed to go with?
All he needs to do is plant doubt and be able to say “my version is just as likely as yours”.
My thoughts exactly. I’m a little disappointed in Snopes for labeling this “probably” true.
And you know the answer is going to be: God was there and he caused it all to be written down in the Bible so that we can know the Truth.
When you start with the premise that the Bible is the literal written word of God, that kind of argument doesn’t work. The person you are arguing with believes he has the credible Word of the one who was there for all of this. He is not basing his belief on personal reasoning, he has the revealed Truth.
I don’t think it’s a good argument to say that the title of the quiz looks fishy because it just says “4th grade science quiz”. This was on the first page of a google search for that phrase and it looks real to me, and appears to be on a school’s website. http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/canbylane/files/F3BF655A7F07462D9B06D34457ED35E9.pdf
I thought that too, but it’s not like it’s an extraordinary claim that the test is genuine. It’s not disputed that creationism is being taught in private schools, and hence quizzes like this are going to exist.
The way I understood it, the person posting in the atheist section of Reddit was just a friend of the child’s family. After it went viral, the father then sent in a collaborative affirmation. I don’t think that’s proof positive that this isn’t a fake, but I also don’t take that to me he’s an atheist either. What’s less clear is why the father would wait until June to share the details. You’d think he was on board with religious schooling and therefore would be proud of their stance on issues like this. Waiting seems to imply disagreement or at least shame in not wanting them outed for their beliefs.
So if a Fundie says the Earth is only 6000 years old, it is acceptable to counter with “Were you there?”