What is a Christian Worldview, part 3
This week we’ll analyze the worldviews of Christianity, naturalism, and the New Age movement. We haven’t the space to do a thorough analysis, but we can employ a grid that every worldview attempts to answer: Where did I come from? What is the matter? What is the solution? Where am I going?
According to the Christian (or biblical) worldview, God created the heavens and the earth, including plants and animals. God also created man in His own image and gave them dominion and stewardship over the earth. The Bible describes a moral and spiritual fall in which the first man and woman used their free will to rebel against God by desiring to be like God. After this rebellion, mankind fell into a moral tailspin; hatred for God and hatred for one’s neighbor (including murder) became commonplace. The solution is redemption and forgiveness of sins by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. On the cross He bore our sins, suffered, died, was buried, and rose again. Those who trust in Him receive Christ’s righteousness, are restored to a right relationship with God, and will live in His presence forever. Those who trust in themselves will be separated from God forever.
The naturalist worldview postulates that we are a product of blind random chance. Naturalism denies there is a creator (there is nothing outside of nature), so any appearance of purpose or design in the universe is merely an illusion. It affirms that all living things are the result of random mutations happening over millions of years and that mankind is nothing but a cosmic accident. Naturalists believe that although man is basically good, they are rapidly destroying the environment which, if not corrected, will bring an end to life on this planet. The solution is to reshape man’s collective thinking through education, and enforce global environmental laws. There is no afterlife to the naturalist; death is the cessation of existence.
The New Age movement is pantheistic, meaning that everything and everyone is god. The New Age movement is a fusion between western naturalism’s commitment to Darwinian evolution and Eastern religion’s rejection of human reason as the means to understand the world. It asserts that mankind has not achieved ‘cosmic consciousness,’ which is the realization that mankind is god. The solution to achieving ‘cosmic consciousness’ is to open the ‘door’ through drugs, meditation, biofeedback, music, channeling, crystals, spirit guides, etc. In the New Age movement, reincarnation is a positive part of the cosmic cycle of evolution and will end when the collective cosmic consciousness is achieved and mankind realizes they are the sovereign god.
When analyzed through the same grid, these competing worldviews are shown to be vastly different. Even this brief analysis demonstrates the contradictions. Based on the law of non-contradiction, we can draw the conclusion that all three of these worldviews cannot be correct.
Next week we’ll conclude this series with some closing comments concerning these three worldviews.
Labels: Christian worldvies
What is a Christian Worldview, part 2
A worldview is a comprehensive philosophical lens though which we attempt to make sense of the world. Everyone possesses a worldview (whether he realizes it or not), and everyone’s ethic is shaped by his worldview. With so many competing worldviews, how can we decide which is correct?
When analyzing a worldview, one must first ask, “Is there a correct view of the world? Is there a particular worldview that is true?” To understand the importance of this question, consider the following summary of a popular Hindu story: There were several blind Hindus that came across an elephant and each described what an elephant was like. One touching the elephant’s leg said, “An elephant is like a tree.” The one holding the elephant’s tail said, “An elephant is like a rope.” Another holding the elephant’s ear said, “An elephant is like a leaf.” One holding the elephant’s trunk said, “An elephant is like a snake.” This story is told to illustrate that no single worldview is totally correct; all philosophies, religions, or worldviews are only partially describing certain aspects of reality. However, the storyteller fails to see that there is one correct, comprehensive view in this story; the view that understands that all of the blind Hindus were describing an elephant. We can call this God’s view.
The foundation of the Christian worldview is that only God has the proper view of the world (He made it, and He alone knows it perfectly) and He has communicated essential truths to mankind through the Scriptures. As Francis Schaffer said, “God is there and He is not silent.” The Christian worldview does not begin with human reason (i.e. Descartes) but with God’s revelation. However, this does not mean that human reason is unimportant.
The first of several possible tests used when analyzing the truth claims of a worldview is the test of reason. Specifically, does the worldview in question violate the law of non-contradiction? For instance, when a relativist says there is no such thing as absolutes, she is violating the law of non-contradiction by making what she believes to be an absolute statement. In the same manner, a skeptic who is certain about his skepticism violates the law of non-contradiction. The presence of logical contradictions should be a red flag and may indicate a fatal error in a worldview.
Other tests include consistency, coherence, comprehensiveness, simplicity, empirical fit, and livability. In his book “Worldviews in Conflict,” Ronald Nash suggests four tests: The test of reason, the test of outer experience, the test of inner experience, and the test of practice. In light of these tests Dr. Nash writes, “When faced with a choice among competing touchstone propositions of different worldviews, we should choose the one that, when applied to the whole of reality, gives us the most coherent picture of the world.”
Next week we’ll compare Christianity with a couple of other competing worldviews.
Labels: Christian worldview
What is a Christian Worldview, part 1
The term worldview (Weltanschauung) first appeared in Immanuel Kant’s “Critique of Judgment” in 1790, and describes an individual’s or group’s comprehensive perspective on the nature of reality. Christian philosopher Ronald Nash writes, “A worldview contains a person’s answers to the major questions in life, almost all of which contain significant philosophical content. It is a conceptual framework, pattern, or arrangement of a person’s beliefs.” Simply put, a Christian worldview is a worldview from a biblical perspective.
Studies have shown that the Christian worldview is losing ground not only in our society at large, but also within the Christian community. According to pollster George Barna, only nine percent of Christian adults have a Christian worldview. His study also revealed that only two percent of Christian teenagers posses a Christian worldview. If we understand that one’s ethic is shaped by one’s worldview, it should come as no surprise that many Christians are not acting christianly; their worldview is determining their actions. In other words, people live what they believe.
G. K. Chesterton understood how important one’s worldview is when he wrote, “But there are some people, nevertheless—and I am one of them—who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe…. We think the question is not whether [one’s] theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether, in the long run, anything else affects them.” Most conflicts between individuals or nations can be traced to conflicting worldviews. There are many in our society who have attempted to pronounce all worldviews correct to eliminate conflict, but this attempt has merely established another worldview—the view that all truth is relative. Even the relativists believe their view of the world is the correct view.
There are many competing worldviews in our culture. A Christian who wants to engage the culture with the truth claims of Scripture should have a good understanding of each of these worldviews: theism (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), deism, naturalism (atheism, humanism, secularism, materialism, nihilism, existentialism), pantheism (New Age, Eastern religions), polytheism, and animism. The default worldview in our culture, especially in our educational system, has become naturalism.
Every worldview differs in the way it attempts to answer certain essential questions: Is there a God? What is the nature of man? What is the nature of reality? How do we know things? What is the meaning of history? How should we behave? Some have reduced these down to four main questions every worldview seeks to answer: Were did I come from? What is the matter? What is the solution? Where am I going? The Bible answers all of these questions.
Since Christianity is a comprehensive worldview, it should affect every area of the Christian life, from jobs to ethics, from art to politics. There should be no separation in the Christian mind between the “sacred” and the “secular.” Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” It is only through Jesus that we can posses the right view of the world.
Next week we will discuss how to analyze competing worldviews.
Labels: Christian worldview
Original Meaning of 'Separation of Church and State', part 2
Contrary to the beliefs of the historical revisionists of our time, our founding fathers did not intend to create a government that was anti-religious. They understood that the liberties guaranteed to the citizens of the United States were based upon a Christian worldview. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights…” It was important to the founding fathers that this government recognize a higher authority than itself. They understood if our rights were endowed by the government alone they could not be permanently guaranteed.
In 1781 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
James Madison, known as the Chief Architect of the Constitution, and the fourth President of the United States, wrote in 1785, “Religion [is] the basis and Foundation of Government.” That same year he wrote, “It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage…Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.”
Samuel Chase, a Supreme Court appointee of George Washington and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated, “By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of the Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.”
George Washington signed into law the Northwest Ordinance in 1789. Article III reads, “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
John Adams, the second President of the United States, wrote, “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”
In 1952 the United State Supreme Court stated, in the case of Zorach v. Clauson, “We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being…” In the case of Lynch v. Donnelly in 1985, the Supreme Court stated, “There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgement by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life…The Constitution does not require a complete separation of church and state. It affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions and forbids hostility towards any.”
Many more citations could be given to show that Christianity and the Bible are the axioms upon which our government is based. However, many today are adamantly denying this connection. If our government refuses to acknowledge the authority of our Creator who has endowed us with certain inalienable rights, then the erosion of our rights and liberties will surely follow.
Labels: separation of church and state
