Radio School of the Bible: Class Notes

Let me start by explaining what a world is. A worldview consists of a set of beliefs, which shape the way we see ourselves, others, and the world around us. EVERYONE HAS A WORLDVIEW - YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT ONE. However, very few people ever think about theirs. These are basic beliefs. They generally consist of SEVEN basic questions ( Taken from James Sire The Universe Next Door ) and answers. How you answer these seven questions will dictate how you live your life. But let me try to build a case for the importance of this material before we examine the seven questions. Why should I know this or how can I use this or is this practical?

1. To help us understand what is happening in our society. It is clear this is a tumultuous time in our nations history. As a society we are going through a crisis in values. There is no longer a common culture or point of view. You and I are missionaries to America - there is no longer a common culture. We have to try to understand the varieties of viewpoints if we are too effective.

2. Even beyond evangelism it helps me live a life that is pleasing to God. One cannot do what one does not know. We are going to try to understand what a distinctively Christian worldview is. If we are to free from the influence of the culture we must be able to distinguish clearly our view from their view. By studying this we can see at a deep level how we are being infiltrated. It is the subtle not the blatant.

Worldviews are attempts to put together a systematic, coherent, set of answers to these seven questions. By way of an introduction to help you maybe understand better let me divide worldviews into two categories. Theistic - These are views that affirm some kind of God. Monotheism - single God - Judaism, Islam etc. Polytheism - many gods - Greek pantheon Pantheism - god in everything Trinitarianism

Atheistic or Secular - These are views that deny God. These views all deny any reality beyond the physical world.

CHRISTIANITY - C. S. Lewis "I believe Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else." YOU CAN ACCEPT A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW WITHOUT BEING A CHRISTIAN.

1. WHAT IS PRIME REALITY? And WHO or WHAT is He or IT like? The Triune God Gen. 1:1 Col. 1:15-17 Ex 3:14, Heb 1:3, Ps 139, Rev 22 God is the most real being according to Christianity. God is the beginning and essence of reality. He is the FACT. Unity and Diversity - Francis Schaeffer - Universe - Unity plus Diversity. Also God is immanent and transcendent. Not just immanent - Pantheism Not just transcendent - Deist

In Conclusion - Ultimate reality for Christianity is the triune God who is transcendent, immanent and personal.

2. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD, OR THE PHYSICAL WORLD AROUND US? ROM 1:20; PS. 19: 1,2 GEN 1: 31, IS 45:18-19 C. S. Lewis - In order that we finite beings may apprehend the Emperor He translates His glory into multiple forms - into stars, woods, waters, beasts, and the bodies of men. ALSO - Because God created the Natural - invented it out of His love and artistry - it demands our reverence. HOWEVER THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE CHRISTIANITY AFFIRMS GEN 3:17 ROMANS 8:20 - 22

The creation is cursed, therefore, we see things which don't seem to fit. Weeds, thorns, thistles, pestilence. A GREAT PAINTING THAT HAS BEEN MARRED OR WEATHERED. There is evil in this good creation.

3. WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING? GENESIS 1:26, 27, 5:3, 9:6 PS.8:5 Special creation of God, Bears God's image, Sexual identity, and Supreme creature on earth. IMAGE OF GOD BUT - GEN 3: 17 � 19; ROM 5: 12; 3: 9 � 18; JER 17: 9 We are also FALLEN. THUS WE SEE HUMANS ARE CAPABLE OF GREAT ACTS OF GOOD AND GREAT ACTS OF EVIL. CHESTERTON " In one way Man was to be haughtier than he had ever been before; in another way he was to be humbler than he had ever been before. Insofar as I am a Man I am the chief of creatures. Insofar as I am a man I am the chief of sinners." ORTHODOXY p. 173. MAN is NOBLE YET FALLEN Total Depravity - NOT INTRINSICALLY EVIL, RATHER PERVERTED

4. WHAT CAN WE KNOW, ANDHOW CAN WE KNOW ANYTHING? ROM 1:19-20 2 REASONS - Augustines view - 1.Because we have been created with the ability to do so. Reason and senses. But this is limited by our finiteness and affects of sin. 2. Because God has spoken - If GOD DOES NOT SPEAK, WE CANNOT KNOW - THIS IS ETERNAL TRUTH � TRUTH

5. WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR RIGHT AND WRONG GOD and his Laws Ex 20 Schaeffer - Moral Dilemna - HE IS THERE AND IS NOT SILENT 2 Questions 1. Why do we ask this question? 2. A meaningful answer ? ONLY theism a personal creator God answers both

6. WHAT HAPPENS AT DEATH? Heb. 9:27, Rev. 20:11 ff, Mt. 25:31 � 33 Human beings will be judged and assigned an eternal destiny based on their decisions in this life. We are either added to our eternal condemnation OR storing eternal rewards.

7. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF HISTORY? Personal - To prepare for the life to come. Human Race - To display Gods's Glory. Col 1:15ff Westminister Confession question #1 What is the Chief end and purpose of man ? Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

SECULAR HUMANISM - Major proponents Corliss Lamont, Eric Ericson, Paul Kurtz, Isaac Asimov, Edwin H. Wilson

Definition of Humanism - "A philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity in this natural world and advocating the methods of reason, science, and democracy. " Lamont The Philosophy of Humanism p. 12

1. WHAT IS PRIME OR ULTIMATE REALITY? Lamont p. 12, 13 Humanism believes in a naturalistic metaphysics or attitude towards the universe that considers all forms of the supernatural as a myth; and that regards Nature as the totality of being and as a constantly changing system of matter and energy which exists independently of any mind or consciousness.

2. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD, OR THE PHYSICAL WORLD AROUND US? It is knowable via scientific observation, however, it is not static. The physical world is always changing. Energy and matter in a dynamic relationship. It is not dependent on some external mind or consciousness for it form or existence. It is necessary, not contingent.

3. WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING? Man is an evolutionary product of Nature of which he is a part. His mind or personality is a function of his brain. No brain function - no person. Man has the power to solve his own problems through reason and the scientific method. He is thus the Supreme Being and within limits free. While human are conditioned by their past, they possess real freedom and are masters of their own fate. Lamont p. 13 Humans are basically good, the concept of original sin is rejected.

4. HOW CAN WE KNOW ANYTHING? Through reason and the scientific method. The only statements that are meaningful are those that are scientifically verified. Paul Kurtz "Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute, neither faith nor passion suffices in itself. We must progress with a controlled use of the scientific method. " p. 42 In Defense of Secular Humanism

5. WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR RIGHT AND WRONG? Paul Kurtz "We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stem from human interest and need..... we strive for the good life here and now. p. 42 Lamont p. 13 " Highest goals are this worldly happiness, freedom, and progress - economic, cultural, and ethical. " We reject the assertion that human beings are motivated by self-interest. therefore service to our fellow man is the ultimate good and consistent with our nature." p. 15

Edward Ericson, The Humanist Way "The individual human being is of infinite value and must not be degraded or abused." p.14

THEREFORE, Humans make their own ethics, it must be humanitarian, yet it is relative, and it should be consistent with their desire to serve others.

6. WHAT HAPPENS AT DEATH? Lamont " He ( man ) can have no conscious existence after death." Kurtz - This is a fundamental point of disagreement with theists. Humanists reject the concept that the soul is separable from the body or that life persists in some form after death. p. 169

7. WHAT IS THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF HISTORY? There is no divine purpose for the universe, humanity, or your life. Any purpose there is you or I discover/create. Generally this is described as leading a good life and striving to improve our species or the human condition.

CRITICISMS 1. It fails to adequately deal with personality. How is possible that matter could produce personality? IT CAN'T, THAT IS WHY HUMANISTS HAVE TO ULTIMATELY DEFINE PERSONALITY AS A FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN. 2. We then are as much persons as an ant or anything else with a brain. We are also then determined by our brain. Then we aren't free as they claim. 3. It fails to deal adequately with the question of beginning. Evolution has never answered the beginning question. What is a Human being? You are a cosmic accident. You are the product of chance and the dynamic forces governing energy. You are no different than any other life form. You die and go into nothingness. THEREFORE YOU HAVE DIGNITY AND ARE OF INFINITE VALUE. You and all those around you are basically good. How can we know anything? Explain reason and the scientific method are based on the brain and senses. According to evolution, the brain and senses are always changing. Therefore can we know anything? No!! Morality -It is relative except must respect infinite dignity of other humans. THIS DOESN"T MAKE SENSE!!!

EXISTENTIALISM - Sort of an antisystem or antiphilosophy. Tries to avoid traditional categories. Existentialism explodes after WWI in Europe, and then is pushed into America by WWII. Two kinds of existentialism; Christian, and atheistic.

MODERN EXISTENTIALISM - 19th and 20th Century � Context -19th century philosophy dominated by the assumption of an objective rational nature of reality-existence of an Ultimate Essence-the individual is a passive receptor Existentialists Rejected -Assumption of an inherently ordered universe or meaning of life-Quest for a rational coherent system -Man passive role in determining the issues of life. Existentialists Proposed-Truth is relative, subjective, personal-the Ultimate is either unknowable or non existent-Each individual must create their own meaning in a meaningless universe-This is done by free choice and faith Some important ideas to remember- Existence proceeds essence or existing versus true existence-Despair- dialectic-contradiction-absurdity-Subjective over objective-The existentialist is concerned with the problem of individual human meaning or purpose.

ATHEISTIC EXISTENTIALISM 1. What is ultimate reality and what is the nature of the physical world? The universe is made of only matter, however, as humans we experience it two ways - objectively and subjectively. The objective side is the world of science. HOWEVER, we also experience the world as hes and shes NOT SIMPLY AS ITS. That is we have value we assign to matter. We ask questions of meaning and purpose. This is the subjective side. These are personal unique questions. SCIENCE IS AN OBJECTIVE DISCIPLINE, BUT MEANING/ PURPOSE QUESTIONS ARE PERSONAL AND SUBJECTIVE.

HOW � OBJECTIVE WHY - SUBJECTIVE THE HOW AND THE WHY ARE BASICALLY UNRELATED. INDEED THE HOW IS ABSURD

3. What is a human being? Man is distinct from all other creatures because he alone must define himself. Ex. Do cows make themselves into someone? Can they choose be someone? NO ONLY MAN DOES THIS. YOU EXIST BEFORE YOU COME INTO YOUR ESSENCE BECAUSE YOU MUST CREATE YOUR ESSENCE. Sartre - You are nothing, later you will be something and you alone will have made yourself. THERFORE YOU ARE A FREE BEING WHO MUST DEFINE YOURSELF - AND YOU MUST DO THIS IN AN ABSURD WORLD. THERE IS NO INTRINSIC MEANING.

Heidegger - You have the experience of GEWORFENHEIT "to be thrown" You are thrown into this world with no explanation for why here and why now. This creates angst and besorgen- concern. You must therefore try to find meaning in a meaningless universe.

Sartre - You came from nothing you are going to nothing. And when faced with this you are filled with despair. But you must strike out to find meaning. But this takes dialectic courage. Why, because the act of striking out ultimately leads to your destruction. EX. Out of Africa, The Old Man and the Sea.

CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM KIEKEGAARD 1813-1855 CONTEXT - State Church--Nominalism and Scholasticism --How can you be a Christian in Christian Denmark ? --Kierkegaard centers on the question of existence-not thinking but being--Life is meaningless or absurd KIERKEGAARD CALLS THIS THE EXISTENTIAL CONDITION. Three Stages: First Stage--AESTHETIC STAGE--Behave by impulse or emotion-governed by senses -no religious belief-chief goal is to enjoy the widest variety of pleasures-no limit but own tastes. PROBLEM--Man is or ought to be aware that life is more than this. CRISIS--Stay here and simply exist or seek existence by choosing to move to next stage. Second Stage--ETHICAL STAGE--Live by a reasonable moral code-Examples--Socrates, Locke, etc. Control sensual drive-Temperance-Provides control and order-Evil is either ignorance or weakness of the will. CRISIS --Something more profound than lack of knowledge or will -deliberate violations--Guilt or sense of sin--Again exist or seek existence by choosing to move on --Religious stage--God through Christ. STEPS BETWEEN STAGES -They are reasonable choices BUT there is NO certainty as to what the choice will bring--not a blind leap--Truth then is subjective and personal CRITICISMS - Christian Existentialism

- Deny intrinsic meaning - this is contrary to the doctrine of Creation- Makes Truth too subjective. Objective - true apprehended by individuals BUT still objective in nature. Atheistic Existentialism- Fails morally- Fails to answer its own question, that of meaning ( at least in an ultimate sense )

THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT --Very difficult to define-It is an approach, rather than a philosophy-It is still evolving & is eclectic-It is growing and blatantly anti- Christian ROOTS: 1. NATURALISM/HUMANISM-NO transcendent God-Man is partly described in simply biological terms-The hope of evolutionary change--we are on the brink of a new age--NEW ERA-Great value on the individual. 2. EASTERN PANTHEISTIC MONISM-Centers on mysticism--this mysticism/mystical experience transcends space, time and morality-It REJECTS reason as a guide to spiritual reality. Spiritual really is irrational thus-drugs/trances/meditation-Monism - all is one. 3. ANIMISM-The universe inhabited by countless spiritual beings in a hierarchy-The universe is personal-These spirit beings are both good & evil-Channelers/seers, etc. through long training have learned how to control the spirit world-There is a unity in life. All life is one--plants, animals, even stones may have souls. MAJOR FIGURES: Popular-SHIRLEY MACLAINE, LINDA EVANS, SHARON GLESS, OPRAH, GEORGE LUCAS, Movies- CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, STAR WARS, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE', 2001 Space Odyssey. Martial Arts-THOSE THAT INVOLVE ALTERED STATED OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Politics- PLANETARY CITIZENS-NEW AGE POLITICAL PLATFORM-GREENS IN GERMANY- HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES - Published a shopping guide in cooperation with The New Age Journal

1. Prime reality-The self. This is the soul, the integrated central essence of each person -They are unclear on what this is. John Lilly " We are creating energy, matter and life at the interface between the void and all known creation. We are facing into the known universe, CREATING IT, filling it ..... I feel the power of the galaxy pouring through me .... I am the creation process itself, incredibly strong, incredibly powerful....... I am "one of the boys in the engine room pumping creation from the void into the known universe; from the unknown to the known I am pumping" ALSO SHIRLEY MACLAINE "If I created my own reality, then - on some level and dimension I didn't understand - I had created everything I saw, heard, touched, smelled, tasted; everything I loved, hated, revered, abhorred; everything I responded to or that responded to me ..... I was therefore responsible for all there was in my reality. If that was true, then I was everything ...... I WAS MY OWN UNIVERSE. Did that also mean I had created God and had created life and death?..... To take responsibility for one's power would be the ultimate expression of what we call the God - force. Was this what was meant by the statement I AM THAT I AM ?" " Know that you are God; know that you are the universe."

2. Nature of the external world-divided SPIRITUAL---IRRATIONAL (most important) PHYSICAL--RATIONAL -All is spiritual � yet all is one

3. What is a human being? -Again-divided SPIRITUAL------god like or god PHYSICAL-----biological/animal

4. What happens at death? -reincarnation-usual view-Death should not be feared, the more awareness of our spiritual consciousness, the less we fear.

5. Epistemology � divided SPIRITUAL---IRRATIONAL, thus, trances, drugs, meditation etc. PHYSICAL--------SCIENCE/RATIONAL

6. Right & wrong-You make your own morality. As you get in touch with yourself you realize---I AM THAT I AM----You make your own rules.

7. Purpose of human history -to bring in the New Age.

POSTMODERNISM - Radical repudiation of Enlightenment notions of : 1).autonomous self 2). commitment to rationalism 3).Scientific method

Three periods 1. Premodern - phase in West Civilization when people believed in the supernatural. Individuals and cultures as a whole believed in God or gods. Life in this world owed its existence and meaning to a spiritual realm beyond the senses. 2). Modern or Enlightenment. Embraced reason, scientific discovery, and human autonomy. Christianity together with paganism rejected as superstitious. Reason alone replaced belief in the supernatural - belief in supernatural came from unenlightened ignorant people. EMERGENCE OF DEISM - A RATIONAL GOD CREATED A RATIONAL UNIVERSE. BUT HE IS NOW DETACHED. 3). Post modern - rejection of enlightenment. Earlier rebel voices - Romanticism and Existentialism. This rebellion begins T. Oden with Berlin Wall, or 1968, etc.

STATEMENT OF DEFINITION.

Characteristics � in it�s essence a rejection of TRUTH

Other Characteristics 1). It is anti-foundational - All previous systems had a specific objective foundation - Christianity-God; Marxism-Economics; Humanism-Rationalism and the Scientific Method. POST MODERNISM SEEKS TO DECONSTRUCT ALL OF THEM AND REPLACE THEM WITH NOTHING. IT ATTACKS METANARRATIVES - TOTALIZING STORIES. IT ATTACKS THE NOTION OF A UNIVERSAL HUMANITY AND UNIVERSAL HISTORY, UNIVERSAL REASON, UNIVERSAL ANYTHING. Example - History is not factual but a series of metaphors based on language constructed by special interest groups. PERFORMANCE REPLACES TRUTH. 2). It deconstructs language - they base relativism on the view that all meaning is socially constructed on a particular view of language. Language cannot render truths because in an objective way because language shapes the way we think and language is created by various cultures - thus meaning is constructed by cultures - there is no objective meaning. 3). Living without Truth - knowledge is not connected to truth, rather, it is seen in terms of rearranging information into new paradigms or worldviews. The goal is to dismantle the views of the past and bring the marginal to the center - rewriting history in favor of those who have been excluded from power. TRUTH IS NOT THE ISSUE, POWER IS THE ISSUE. THUS the life of the mind has a new model - not Socrates� vigorous dialogues seeking truth OR Newton�s scrutinizing nature. Rather it is the virtual reality helmet because for postmoderists all reality is virtual.

OTHER ISSUES

1. Epistemology: all human knowledge is constructed by human reason, but also by the whole person, including the unconscious, the irrational, and especially the body. Positively, each individual human must be considered in a holistic way as a particular totality. Negatively, the more pluralistic the culture, the more an all-pervasive relativism and nihilism threaten.

2. Phenomenology: in human relationships the reality of the Other (Alter) in all of his or her "difference," must be recovered, and respected as much as the autonomous self, which Enlightenment modernism was built on.

3. Sociology of Knowledge: knowledge must be handled carefully for it is a power that often has been used to dominate the other. The processing of information becomes more important than the producing of commodities.

4. Sociology: society functions best for all individuals when it is viewed as a network of many individual sources of wisdom and power rather than a structured hierarchy of control. Civility and political correctness matter!

5. Ethics: a decentralized view of community is taken in which that which is marginal disenfranchised nomadic and chaotic is valued and granted the same normative place as the Enlightenment accorded to what it deemed to be universal, moral, and rational. Subversion in ethics is frankly advocated.

6. Literature and Entertainment: the lines between historical fact, poetic fiction, and fantasy are erased, making reality surreal and ambivalent. MTV- images with no interconnection

7. Technology and Media: these tools are used to make the real world into a scene or a mirror of the inner world in which the Self can play as well as find the therapy it desires ("healing" from "victimization").

8. Psychology: the Self, without external norms to discern and discriminate with, internalizes a large number of opposite roles and worldviews resulting in a fragmented (multiple) Self. --Madonna

9. Pop Culture: "Image is everything!" Either spiritual and moral problems, as well as situations and people, are reduced to one-dimensional agendas and cartoon figures -- consisting all of surface without foundation or depth -- or everything is made into a screen upon which the Self projects its collage of inner fragmented experiences.

10. Hermeneutics: one must be suspicious of all "totalizing metanarritives" which seek to name, define, and legitimate social institutions, roles, identities, and practices. Ultimately, language, the main arena of postmodern thought, cannot carry the authority of reality as it really is: language is a labyrinth that has as its only referent more language.

ANOTHER APPROACH: 1). Self driven by desire alone -all principles are preferences -all preferences are principles 2). Language-anything can be made to look good or bad by being redefined. 3). Ultimate questions are unanswerable and hence unimportant. Truth replaced by psychological effectiveness.