It goes without saying that there are many questions in life. The funny thing is, we all approach the end of our lives with more questions than when we started. Although human beingslearnatremendous amount throughout their lives, the questions only seem to multiply as the years go by. Even so, there are scarcely any questions that cannot be gathered into one of four universal questions concerning human life: “How did I get here? What does it mean to be human? What is my purpose in life? And what will happen to me when I die?” Whether it be the peasant farmer in Southeast Asia or the floor trader on Wall Street, these ultimate questions haunt, to some extent, every member of world society. Needless to say, how the peasant farmer answers these questions will undoubtedly be significantly different from the answers given by the floor trader, yet both men ask the exact same questions. The answers that they give to these ultimate questions are not random, stand-alone answers; rather, they emanatefromaframeworkofbeliefs that a person constructs based upon education, experience, observation, and passion. Such a framework is most often identified as a person’s worldview. And everyone on the planet has one.
Accordingtoworldviewresearcher James Sire, “A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently, or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of our world.” From this definition, it is not hard to see that almost all worldviews will prove to be false. In fact, since there can only be one truth, there can only be one truthful worldview. Even so, both the peasant farmer and the floor trader are convinced that their worldview is the one coherent and true view, and that all other views are false. And it is not just between such differing positions in life that worldviews appear; there is no doubt a vast array of worldviews held within a group of peasant farmers, or even among a group of Wall Street floor traders. The challenge, then, is this: how do we determine which worldview is true among all worldviews?
Worldview scholar Nancy Pearcey argues that any worldview can be systematically evaluated by subjecting its tenets to a series of questions. According to Pearcy, the evaluation process begins with determining what the ultimate reality is in that view. For example, within the Christian worldview, God is the ultimate reality. Since naturalists and materialists do not believe in God or anything spiritual or supernatural, the ultimate reality in their worldview is to be found in the physical world. That is, the physical laws of nature that govern the world. It is not hard to see what the ultimate reality was for the astronomer Carl Sagan, who famously said, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” Usually, such a view leads to the belief that power, fame, fortune, and self are the ultimate reality. Regardless of a person’s worldview, something stands in as that worldview’s ultimate reality. Christian doctrine holds that since man is created in the image of God, it is impossible for man not to be compelled to worship the God in whose image he was created. Nevertheless, much of mankind suppresses the truth about God and replaces the one true God with something else. That something else Christians call an idol (cf Rom 1:19-21). It is a brute fact that man always worships something; he never worships nothing. Accordingly, Pearcey states in her book Finding Truth that there are five principles for identifying false worldviews.
First, it is important to determine exactly what in the worldview it is that replaces God as the ultimate reality. In other words, the first step is to identify the worldview’s idol. Second, since all non-Christian worldviews worship something that is lower than God in the created order (self, money, fame, pleasure, etc.), they are reductionistic in nature. This reductionism is often responsible for establishing social hierarchies that devalue particular groups, often based on socioeconomic or racial factors. Therefore, step two is to determine the idol’s reductionism. Third, since one noticeable trait of false worldviews is their contradiction with what is known about the world, step three requires identifying these contradictions. Many of these contradictions involve how a worldview navigates the moral law. Fourth, since it is well established that all false worldviews contradict themselves, those contradictions must also be identified. Fifth and finally, an assessment of how the Christian worldview stands up to these questions needs to be presented. And that we will do.
Join us over the following several articles as we dig deeper into worldview assessments by following Pearcey’s 5-step comparative model. All of this and more as we press ever closer to answering the question: Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.