Introduction to Worldviews (12) (ELCA)

Introduction to Worldviews (Senior Bible)
Notes for:
Bible Worldviews (12) (ELCA)

Worldview - How we view our world and our place in it.

Worldview is how you see life and answer major questions.

1. Why are we here?
   • A divine purpose?
   • For no reason whatsoever?
2. How did we get here?
   • Creation?
   • Evolution?
   • Intelligent Design?
3. What is the meaning and purpose of life?
   • To have a great time?
   • Keep the Pillars of Islam?
   • Glorify God?
4. Is there a difference between right and wrong?
   • No?
   • Yes?
     • Personal Opinion?
     • God?
     • Society?
5. Is there a God?
   • We are God?
   • Aliens are God?
   • Jesus is God?
   • Allah is God?

Every worldview tries to establish an answer for these questions.

1. Christianity
2. Islam
3. Secular-Humanism
4. Marxism-Leninism (Communist Thought)
5. Cosmic Humanism
6. Post-Modernism

Why study a Christian Worldview?

"The basic problem with Christians in this country, in regard to society, is they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals."
-Schaeffer

• We do not see the big picture.

When are not sure about our foundations, we become skeptical

We cannot drop these...

1. Virgin Birth
2. Trinity
3. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ

We can drop these...

1. Tribulation
2. Election

Why do we study Islam?

• It is the fastest growing religion in the world
• Stats
  1. France will be mostly Islamic in five years.
  2. England will be mostly Islamic in ten years.

Pillars of Islam (plus a modern one)

1. • They will repeat a Prayer everyday
     • The Shahadah
     • "There is no god by Allah and Muhammad is his prophet"
   • The will pray five times a day, facing Mecca
2. Sal√°t
   • Important Cities: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem (Dome of the Rock)
   • Fast during the month of Ramadan.
   • Zak√°t
   • Give to the poor.
   • A Pilgrimage to Mecca
   • Hajj
3. Jihad
   • Holy War

Why do we study Secular Humanism

The Humanist Manifesto

Three have been published

• 1933
• 1973
• 2000

John Dewey

1. Believed the Classroom was the greatest place to indoctrinate Secular Humanism
2. You are impressionist in your youth.
3. People from faith are "easy prey"

Ted Turner

• The Ten Voluntary Initiatives
  1. We should take care of the planet
  2. We should take care of humanity
  3. No more than two children
  4. Rely on the UN for everything
  5. A NWO - One planet government / society
  6. Birth of radical environmentalism
     • We began to worship the creation more than the creator.

Why do we study Marxism-Leninism (Communist Thought)

Pavlov / Psychology

• Pavlov's Dogs
• Condition society
• 1984

Lysenko / Biology

• The Communist Manifesto
  • Empire (The Latest Communist Manifesto)
    • Published by Harvard University Press
    • Written by Italian Fugitive and Duke University Professor
• Karl Marx
  • Wrote the Communist Manifesto with Fredrik Engles
  • Marxist
• Vladimir Lenin
  • The Bolshevik Revolution
  • First Dictator of USSR
  • Leninist
• Mao Tse-Tung
  • First dictator of China
  • Maoism (China)
  • Tiananmen Square
    • June 4, 1989
    • 11,000 Students and Adults were killed in a protest.
• Leon Trotsky
  • Trotskyism
  • A mixture of Leninism, Marxism, and Communism
  • Kicked out of Russia and lived in South America
  • There was a contract for his life.
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn
  • Sent off to the salt mines in Sybria
  • A believer in Christ
  • Stood up against Communism
  • Released him

Why do we study Cosmic Humanism

• Desire to create a perfect society
  • New Age Movement
  • Far East Religions
    • Buddhism
    • Hinduism
    • Shintoism
    • Taoism
  • Astrology
    • Horoscopes
    • Alignment of the presents
  • Wicca
    • Witchcraft and Wizardry
  • Scientology
    • It is its own religion.
    • God is above all over gods in the universe
    • Christ is the symbol of the universe
      • Weren't all the way there
    • Repentance is evil!
    • Hell is a myth to make people unhappy and scare you.
  • Radical Environmentalism
    • Take care of the planet first
  • Mother Earth
    • Literally, there mother
    • Barefoot will allow you get positive vibes
    • Drug use, because it comes from Mother Earth
  • No clear doctrine
  • Possibly 60 million followers

Why do we study Post-Modernism

• The three values
  • Commitment to relativism
    • No absolutes.
  • Opposition to rationalism
    • Critical thinking is to narrow.
  • Denial of worldview or belief system (meta-narrative)
• Deconstructionism
  • Words do not represent reality
  • Derida
  • I can interrupt anything anyway I want. - Karl Marx
• Nietzsche
  • God is Dead, We killed Him!"
• Fouravlt