by Brock Eastman, Dr. Fizzlebop
Watching my four children (ages 12, 10, 8 and 6) learn about the world around them leaves me in a constant state of awe. Children are so curious! I know I was curious as a young boy, but now as a dad, I see it every day in my own kids. That curiosity exists in the way they look at the world around them and in the questions they ask about both faith and science. They want to understand how the stories in the Bible connect to their own lives, just as they want to understand the stupendous natural marvels they see.
Often it seems society tells us that believing in God excludes you from the realm of science, but I argue that science exists because of a wonderful God, an Intelligent Designer, Who created the everyday complexities of our world. It doesn’t take an expert with a doctorate to look at the intricacies of life around us and realize this world in which we live didn’t come to be from happenstance or luck. The universe didn’t come together because of a random bang. There is a perfect plan, a marvelous design, for life itself. The fact that the world was intentionally planned and designed is what makes it worth studying!
As my wife and I teach our kids about what they see, feel, smell and experience, we do so through the lens of what the Creator made: “Look at what He gave us; isn’t it marvelous?” Our world needs kids to know that they can believe in God and have a deep faith while still pursuing careers in STEAM fields, which are science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. In fact, we need to encourage kids of faith to pursue these careers so they can reveal to others the power of an almighty God, an Intelligent Designer. As Christians we have access to the inspiration that is God-given. Imagine what the world might be like if more people prayed for God to reveal His plans for them and to inspire their study and work. What mysteries would we solve? How many more people would know and praise God? What new discoveries would help people in need?
Even though we know the importance of teaching these things to our children, life is busy and often distracts us with activities, school and work. We as parents can easily find ourselves just surviving, bouncing from one thing to the next. But speaking as a dad who already can’t believe he has a 12-year-old, I see the folly in not making our faith and our children’s faith a priority. If we don’t do this, then who will? It’s our responsibility not only to guide our kids along their faith journey and to instill in them the importance of keeping God as the focus of their lives, but also to live that ourselves. And as I’ve tried to help my kids grow, I’ve grown too. My kids challenge me to look at the world differently, to return to a time of innocence and imagination, to see the purity of what God gave us when He created the world.
I love watching the wonder in my children’s eyes during a science experiment as we add the ingredients and observe the results of a reaction. And it absolutely thrills me when we have the opportunity during an experiment to connect our everyday experiences to God’s marvelous plan! When we get to talk about how rain works and then discuss how the world was once flooded by that rain, the stories in the Bible come to life in new ways, and the experiments reinforce those truths in the Bible.
And that’s the greatest desire of my character, Dr. Fizzlebop: to help busy families like mine grow together around fun experiments and faith-building discussions as he shares his quirky (and at times cheesy) passion for God, science and fizz. Dr. Fizzlebop began in 2015 as a character demonstrating a short experiment in Clubhouse Jr. Magazine every few months. Then he came to life in 2020 as the teacher of the science portion of Tyndale House Publishers’ virtual summer camp (filmed in my hometown’s middle school science lab!). That led to the November 2021 release of his first book of experiments and devotions for families, Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop. Now we’re creating the Fizzlebop Labs web series on YouTube as we release weekly videos demonstrating super simple, neato experiments. My hope is that families will use this book and the companion YouTube videos as a catalyst to spend time together, to engage in fun and easy experiments around the kitchen table, to discuss what they observe from the experiments, and to go deeper with each other and their faith as they read the devotionals.
We as parents have been entrusted with guiding our children to see the wondrous world and Who made it for them. So when my daughter Elsie stood on Pulpit Rock (Colorado Springs, CO), raised her arms to the heavens and shouted, “This is what God made!” I smiled, my eyes teared up and my heart felt fizztastically full. Though everything she saw was easily explained by scientific reason—wind and rain eroded the rocks, birds scattered the seeds from which plants grew in unlikely places on the cliffside, and bees at that very moment pollinated some brilliant purple flowers—Elsie saw the Master behind it all: a creative God who made the intricacies of this world we enjoy, Who put all the amazing plans in place for Pulpit Rock to form. When we encourage our children to see the world and the science within it through the magnificent view of a Creator who designed it to be as it is, there’s no telling what incredible discoveries they may make while honoring the Creator Who designed the very brain with which they think and imagine. Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry, once said, “Remember to give glory to the One who authored nature.” God made it, He designed it, and that’s why it works. The intricacies, the details are His, but He gave us the fizztastic fun of exploring it with science! My prayer is that Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop will help families build a strong foundation of faith and scientific understanding from which kids can spend the rest of their lives exploring with curious, wondering eyes.
Brock Eastman has a degree in marketing and works for David C. Cook leading digital product and content development. Previously he was a producer and podcast host for Adventures in Odyssey. He is the author of The Quest for Truth series, Bedtime on Noah’s Ark, Imagination Station series; Showdown with the Shepherd, and Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop. He writes feature stories and the Dr. Fizzlebop recurring column for Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr. magazines. He is also the host of Tyndale Kids’ Summer Camp. He loves cooking with his wife and reading stories to his four kids each night.