Why Believe? Apologetics Curriculum

Why Believe? is a free Christian apologetics curriculum for grades 3 through 12. Rather than teaching what Christians believe, it focuses on why: the evidence and reasoning behind belief in God, the reliability of the Bible and the historical case for the resurrection. It was built by a father who wanted his own children to be able to answer the question "why do you believe it is true?" with more than "because my parents told me."

The student curriculum has 47 lessons in three tracks: Explorer for grades 3 to 5, Foundations for grades 6 to 8 and Advanced for grades 9 to 12. The most useful design choice for a homeschool family is that all three tracks cover the same thirteen topics at different reading levels. You can assign the Explorer lesson to an eight-year-old, Foundations to a twelve-year-old and Advanced to a sixteen-year-old, then hold one discussion together. Thirteen topics make a quarter at one per week, or a full year at one every three weeks. Lessons include quizzes and discussion questions, and a separate Sunday school version packages a thirteen-week quarter with forty-minute lesson plans.

Topics include the cosmological, moral and fine-tuning arguments, science and faith, manuscript and archaeological evidence, fulfilled prophecy, the historical Jesus, the resurrection, the problem of evil and practical conversation skills. The material draws on named scholars such as William Lane Craig, John Lennox, Gary Habermas and C.S. Lewis, and quotes skeptics including Richard Dawkins and Bart Ehrman directly rather than paraphrasing them.

It is entirely free, with no account, no ads and nothing to buy, and it works on a phone, tablet or projector without printing. The same lessons are available in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Japanese. Note that this is explicitly Christian apologetics written from a position of faith. It is a good fit for families who want that, not a neutral survey of world religions or philosophy.