Worldviews Intro #1

Your worldview is never directly mentioned in conservation, but it influences everything you say. Often times, people do not even know the definition of a worldview or what it entails. To quote Norman Geisler and William Watkins, "A worldview is a way of viewing or interpreting all of reality. It is an interpretive framework through which or by which one makes sense of the data of life and the world." A rather complex sentence, but basically a worldview is how you see the world. Think of it as a pair of glasses, you literally see through them, in the same way, you look through your worldview and see the circumstances of the world. Other illustrations are a filter or a tree, the filter is rather explanatory; the tree however uses the fact that trees have unseeable roots. Each person's worldview is like the roots of tree, you cannot see them but you know for certain that they are there. Also, the illustration of roots describes that your worldview is shown through your actions or your fruits. Our textbook defines a worldview as "refer[ing] to any set of ideas, beliefs, convictions, or values that provides a framework or map to help you understand God, the world, and your relationship to God and the world."This is a definition specific to Christianity, but any worldview must answer questions such as- Is there a God? How were we created? Why were we created? Kevin Bywater states that every worldview answers the questions: "What is God? [and] What is Human?" Six predominant worldviews are Christianity, Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism-Leninism, Cosmic Humanism, and Postmodernism (Found in UTT).  Others exist, but these six define our society and create many questions for the today's Christians. In response to these definitions, we, as Christians, must seek to develop a distinctly Christian worldview so as to reflect Christ in our thoughts and actions. But how do you think in an only-Christian way when society influences are constantly directing us? The solution is not a simple, cut and dry answer, merely a life spent attempting to emulate Christ and accepting grace when we fail. However, certain practices and disciplines can make this easy. For instance, understanding the Bible literally and studying it daily can help a Christian be discerning in a complicated world. Also, we need to be prepared to proclaim our beliefs and be courageous. To do this, we must understand others' worldviews and why Christianity denounces them- thus the reason for taking UTT. We have to be ready to stand up for Christ and answer the "greatest question of our time...[can] man live without God?" Here our a couple steps to create a consistent Christian worldview (taken from Kevin Bywater's video lectures) 1. Don't read your Bibles...Study them 2. Read other worldview materials 3. Put yourself in challenging situations 4. Stretch your intellectual boundaries 5. Engage in cultural analysis 6. Watch your time closely. Most of these practices entail getting to know God and learning how to be a disciple. We must not fear engaging in debates because God can use us in tremendous ways!
 These are not hard and fast steps; they will merely prepare you from confrontations from other views. By knowing God and His word, we will understand how to be witnesses to the world and bring light to them.