# Did this passage come from a Christian textbook? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771 "2022-06-06T19:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/1 "2022-06-06T19:07:06Z")
I’ve seen this posted on Facebook and elsewhere as coming from a Christian 4th grade school textbook, and I wonder as to its authenticity: “Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or heard it or felt it. We can see and feel and hear only what electricity _does_. We know that it makes lightbulbs shine and irons heat up and telephones ring. But we cannot say what electricity itself is like. We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. Others think that the movement of the earth produces some of it. All anyone knows is that electricity seems to be everywhere and that there are many ways to bring it forth.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/2 "2022-06-06T19:09:48Z")
The book it allegedly comes from is [available on Amazon.](https://www.amazon.com/Science-Christian-Schools-Home-Teachers/product-reviews/0890845697?pageNumber=3) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/3 "2022-06-06T19:10:14Z")
And more excerpts here: > **[Science 4 for Christian Schools 🌭 - 1900HOTDOG](https://1900hotdog.com/2020/10/learning-day-science-4-for-christian-schools/)** > > Trees? Electricity? The moon!? Name a single thing other than God that can explain them. Let me show you more answers in Science 4 for Christian Schools. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/4 "2022-06-06T19:10:23Z")
It is tied to an actual Home School text book. > **[Home School 4th Grade "Science" Textbook Claims Electricity is Magic - Real...](https://www.realskeptic.com/2011/09/25/home-school-4th-grade-science-textbook-claims-electricity-is-magic/)** > > “Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or felt it. We can see, hear, and feel only what electricity does. We know that it makes light bulbs shine and irons heat up and telephones ring. But we can not say what electricity itself is... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/5 "2022-06-06T19:13:27Z")
Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/6 "2022-06-06T20:06:11Z")
I met a woman who was home schooled a few of years ago. (Not remarkable in the U.S., but almost unknown in the U.K., so if was a first for me.) I’d estimate that she was a little above average innate intelligence, mid-thirties. There were just these vast and unpredictable gaps in her knowledge. She had no idea what a (biological) cell was, had _never heard of_ protons or electrons. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/7 "2022-06-06T20:11:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity I didn’t know this. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/8 "2022-06-06T20:14:15Z")
Some scientists eat hair ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/9 "2022-06-06T20:37:39Z")
True enough - I knew one with trichotillomania. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/10 "2022-06-07T11:15:50Z")
And don’t get them started on magnets. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/11 "2022-06-07T11:24:20Z")
If it does, it must be a textbook that’s 200 years old. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/12 "2022-06-07T11:38:38Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Some scientists eat hair . “Some people juggle geese!” ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/13 "2022-06-07T14:45:36Z")
How do they fucking work? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/14 "2022-06-07T15:03:21Z")
No one knows. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/15 "2022-06-07T15:26:10Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity > > I didn’t know this. Some scientists were home schooled and learned about electricity from this textbook. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/16 "2022-06-07T17:21:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. The funny thing is, this is basically true. When you burn fossil fuels, you are releasing chemical energy that was stored in dead plants and micro-organisms that eventually became coal, oil, natural gas, etc. The ultimate source of that chemical energy was sunlight. The sun also powers the winds, and is the source of energy in the water cycle that allows hydro plants to work. Solar power - well, that one should be obvious. As for nuke plants, uranium is created in stars, then gets distributed through the universe when a star goes kablooey. If an older star didn’t go supernova before our solar system formed, we wouldn’t have uranium on Earth. But the textbook is still ok on this one since they said “most”, so even if nuke power isn’t powered by sunlight, nuke plants only make about 10 percent or so of our power these days (IIRC). Most electricity is generated by non-nuclear fuel sources. So that one sentence is surprisingly accurate, considering that it comes from an author who apparently believes that God just “magics” the electricity from the sun into the power wires somehow. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > coming from a Christian 4th grade school textbook Hopefully this means that it was written by 4th graders, and not written for 4th graders. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/17 "2022-06-07T17:43:27Z")
It’s accurate if you interpret it to mean “the energy in electricity”. Is that what this book means? The sentence “All anyone knows is that electricity seems to be everywhere”, though, seems to be referring to the mere presence of electrons, without regard to their energy. With as vague and handwavy as the language is, who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/18 "2022-06-07T17:51:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is that what this book means? The book doesn’t say that electricity comes from the sun-It says that some scientists say that electricity may come from the sun, while others say it comes from other sources. The take-away is supposed to be that scientists don’t really know jack, therefore God did it. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/19 "2022-06-07T18:02:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is that what this book means? Pffft… who knows. The book sounds like it was written by someone who doesn’t even know what a power plant is. Electricity just “appears” and no one knows where it comes from. There could be anything on the other end of that wire! What a mystery! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771/20 "2022-06-07T18:03:41Z")
Based on the “nobody has ever seen it or felt it” part, I’m guessing the writer doesn’t know lightning is electrcity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-passage-come-from-a-christian-textbook/965771.md?page=2)