What does every person have but few people are aware of?

The answer: A worldview. Everyone has their own worldview, but the vast majority of people are unaware of it, or wouldn’t even know what a worldview is. It’s the sum of everything one believes regarding the universe, life, knowledge & how everything holds together. It determines how one answers the big questions of life: Where do we come from? Does life have purpose? Why are things the way they are? How do we know right from wrong? And most importantly, where do we go after this life ends?

Why is it important for you to think about your worldview? Because that’ll determine your answers to these questions. It also determines how you live your life, how you relate to others & whether you believe that your life (& of those around you) even matter. You’ll encounter people who hold all kinds of views on these matters. Most have either not thought their views through, or uncritically accepted it on bad logic. It’s important to consider your own views & make sure that they’re internally consistent, coherent, & applicable to life.

The purpose of this pamphlet is to list common worldviews & examine them in light of logic & applicability. Perhaps you hold to one of the worldviews listed. I urge you then to read on, think about your views & whether they’re sound.

A NATURALIST WORLDVIEW One popular worldview is Naturalism. This

worldview claims that all that exists is matter & energy—things that can be known through physical sciences (biology, chemistry, physics). Not only is supernatural not real, but metaphysical concepts like beauty & goodness aren’t objectively real either, being purely subjective. Underlying this view are philosophies like logical positivism which, though no longer taken seriously by philosophers, survive in popular form in the works of “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins & Sam Harris. Astrophysicist Carl Sagan best summarizes this worldview in his famous statement: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be”

Note that Naturalism is based on a self-refuting premise: that only physical sciences provide objective

truth. The statement “only physical sciences provide objective truths” is a metaphysical claim which itself can’t be verified through science, failing its own test. Science says nothing about metaphysics. It can verify things within nature, but can’t say that nothing exists beyond it. That can only be known through other disciplines (like history or philosophy), or revelation.

Most importantly, since science says nothing about metaphysics, Naturalism has no answer to any of the major worldview questions. It can’t say why anything exists rather than nothing, whether life has purpose, or how to tell right from wrong. Naturalism can only say that such questions are meaningless; nobody can explain why anything is the way it is. It just is. This leads to Nihilism, the view that neither morality nor purpose exists. This view can never truly be lived out, as any attempt to do so can only lead to despair.

A POSTMODERN WORLDVIEW Seeing the failure of attempts to find objective

truth through science, a shift has occurred in recent decades towards Postmodernism. This worldview is characterized by a rejection of objective truth in any area of knowledge. Everything is subjective, being conditioned by individual perceptions & biases. What’s true for you may not be so for me, & no one can know the big picture story (if one exists). Many who hold to this worldview are suspicious of all truth claims, following philosopher Michel Foucault, who said that any such claims are just attempts to exert power over others.

The problem with Postmodernism is that like Naturalism, its premises are self-refuting. It claims that objective truth does not exist, yet Postmodernists present this claim as objectively true. If there’s no objective truth, then this tenet of Postmodernism can’t be objectively true. If our perceptions are culturally conditioned, then Postmodernism is also culturally conditioned.

This self-refutation also holds for Foucault’s statement that truth claims are exertions of power. If that’s so, wouldn’t that mean that those who claim postmodernism are also attempting to exert power over others when they make worldview claims? As philosopher Roger Scruton once said: “A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely negative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.”

In the end, no one can live like we can’t know anything. Otherwise, we can’t communicate meaning fully or make value judgments, destroying the ability to know truth from error.

AN EASTERN RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEW Another set of popular worldviews are those

from the East. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, & the like. Of these religions, Hinduism is the largest and oldest, influencing those after it. These religions have various concepts in common with one another, which’ll be examined here.

One belief these religions have in common is Pluralism: the view that all religions are equally valid paths to God, or that they’re all true in one way or another. This is likened to a mountain with many paths, all leading to the top. The fallacy of this is clear once one gets past the superficial similarities among the world’s religions & gets to the core issues: Do we have the same God concept? Some religions teach there’s only one God. Others teach there are many. Others teach there are none, or that we’re all God.

This violates the law of logic called the Law of Non-Contradiction: Something can’t be both true & false at the same time. Here’s another example: Who is Jesus? Many eastern religionists say he’s one of their great spiritual teachers (even though Jesus’ worldview comes from 1st century Judaism & not Eastern religions). Christians say he’s the Son of God, & that Jesus said his disciples are blessed for confessing this (Mt 16:17). By contrast, Muslims deny that he’s the Son of God. The Qur’an curses Christians for calling him that (Q 9:30). They can’t all be right. Jesus taught something, but not all these things at once.

Another common view in eastern religions is Pantheism, the belief that the universe & everything in it is God. Connected to this is the view that we’re ourselves divine, & that all things are one. This view has major problems: If all things are one, what ultimately makes human life more valuable than any other life? If God is all & all is God, then the death of a person is no more tragic than the death of an ant or amoeba. Also, what are we to make of good & evil? The answer in Pantheism is that there is no ultimate difference between good & evil. All moral judgments break down. One anecdote illustrating this is told by theologian Francis Schaeffer: In an encounter with a Hindu student at Cambridge, he asked if he was

correct in saying that in the Hindu’s view, cruelty & non-cruelty are equal. The Hindu nodded. Understanding the implications, a nearby student took a kettle of boiling water & held it above the Hindu’s head, repeating, “There is no difference between cruelty & non-cruelty.” The Hindu quickly walked out of that room.

Thus the Eastern worldview fails to explain reality as it really is.

A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW At this point, the most viable worldview one may

believe in is one with a personal God who not only created the world but also interacts with it & communicates via revelation. There are many books that claim to be revelation, like the Qur’an, the Book of Mormon, & the Vedas.

But one book stands out from all the rest: The Bible. What makes this book unique from the rest? If read it, you’ll find that it’s really a collection of 66 books in 3 different languages by 40 different authors over a 1,500 year timespan, but with 1 consistent message. These books come in different genres: poetry, history—archaeologically supported history—& prophecy, among others. Some prophecies speak of future events that take place hundreds of years later—recorded in later books of the Bible. For example, take the 53rd chapter of Isaiah & see how it talks about the sufferings of Jesus 700 years before he was even born!

It also records the life of Jesus, how he lived, died & rose again. This was written by men who traveled with him & saw the events with their own eyes (1 Jn 1:1-4, 2 Pet 1:16-18), & went through all kinds of trials (leading to most of them being killed) for the sake of their testimony, which shows that they were certain about what they experienced.

Beginning in Genesis, the Bible explains how everything came to be, & how God made us in his image, forming the basis for humanity’s inherent dignity & worth. God gave us everything, & revealed himself to us so we’d seek him & know him (Acts 17:24-28). But instead of seeking God, we sin against him by breaking his law & fall under his just condemnation. This is the Bible’s answer for why all the world’s problems exist. We’re all guilty before the law, & must one day give an account to God for breaking it (Rm 6:23, Heb 9:27).

You may not think that God will regard you as guilty on the Day of Judgment, but the Bible is clear that all have sinned (Rm. 3:23). Think about this: Have you ever lied? Ever stolen anything, no matter how small? Ever used “Jesus” to cuss? Even if you haven’t done all these things, to break one law is to be guilty of the whole Law (Jas 2:10). This leaves us all without excuse. We are all liable to face God’s judgment for our sins.

Here, the Gospel (“good news”) comes in: In order to save us, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as the means to pay for humanity’s sin. He laid his life down as a ransom for many (Jn 10:17, Mk 10:45). By his life, death & resurrection, we may be forgiven of our sins & restored to a right relationship with God. Jesus alone can do this because he alone obeyed God’s law perfectly, giving him qualifications no one else has (1Pet 2:22-24). But to receive these benefits, we must turn away from our sins & trust him as Saviour & Lord. Only then may we be acceptable to God & adopted into his family, becoming children of God. He isn’t demanding that we be better people, because nothing we can do can earn salvation. Rather, he calls to us in our brokenness so that he may heal us & give salvation as a free gift. Only then can true transformation take place.

Think about this worldview carefully, as its truth or falsity may completely change everything for you, both in this life & in eternity. If you’d like a further explanation of what Christianity entails, check out 2 Ways to Live. This presentation shows the choice we all face & why it matters:

www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl

Brought to you by Nicene International Ministries. Check us out online at www.nimcanada.org.

WHAT’S

YOUR

WORLDVIEW? J. Luis Dizon