Christian Values and Biblical Faith (CVBF) - Midterm

N.T. Wright on Worldviews

"A worldview is like the foundation of a house... vital but invisible."

Machen on Worldview

"False ideas are the greatest obstacle to the reception of the gospel."

C.S Lewis on theism

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

Carl Sagan on naturalism

"The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."

Alvin Plantinga on Theism

"Theism offers suggestions for answers to a wide range of otherwise intractable questions."

Abraham Kuyper

"There is not a square inch of the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ does not cry mine." Christian worldview is a total life system. Two forces at war with each other. Modernism (autonomy from God) and Christianity (dependence on God) Grace restores nature God is sovereign We have a cultural mandate Dualism between believers and unbelievers

Panentheism Vs. biblical theism

1) God is director of worlds unfolding process vs. God is creator of the world 2) World is eternal vs. the world is temporally finite. 3) God and the world are interdependent vs. God is independent of the world and sustains it. 4) God successively and eternally attains perfections vs. God is unchanging in nature and perfections.

Pope John Paul II

1) Humans are characterized by their search for truth 2) Human culture is based on the outgrowth of religious commitments. 3) A radical transformation must take place at a cultural level.

Three major features of naturalism

1) Matter is all that exists (metaphysics) 2) All events are physically determined by prior events going all the way back to the big bang (etiology) 3) Knowledge is only or best acquired through scientific method. (epistemology).

Reasons for God's existence

1) Producing something from nothing (big bang): Something cant come into existence from nothing. 2) Producing a life-permitting universe by chance is numerically impossible. 3) Producing life from non life is numerically impossible. 4) Moving from the bacterium to homo sapiens is numerically impossible.

Reasons for Gods existence

1) Rationality: we can trust our reason 2) Matter can not come from non matter 3) Life can not come from non life 4) Life is fine tuned 5) Humans have intrinsic value 6) Beauty exists 7) Energy is winding down. (finite beginning. 2nd law of thermodynamics

Features of a worldview

1) Serves as a unifying story 2) Serves as a lens for addressing ultimate human questions 3) Operates at a subconscious level 4) Shapes daily life actions, beliefs, and intentions 5) Serves as a orientation or commitment of the heart

Questions a worldview must answer

1) What is ultimate reality (metaphysics)? 2) What is the nature of the world around us? 3) What are human beings? 4) What happens at death? 5) Is it possible to know anything at all? 6) How do we know right from wrong? 7) Does history (and our own lives) have meaning?

Atheistic existentialism

1) existence precedes essence (radical freedom) 2) There is a facticity/giveness to our lives 3) Refusing to act is bad faith or in-authenticity Key figures: Sartre, Camus, Kafka

Criteria for assessing a worldview to be true

1) is it rational? 2) is it evidential? 3) is it coherent/matches with reality? 4) is it moral? 5) is it practical? Do I have to borrow from other worldviews?

Theism

A personal good, powerful God creates a world distinct from himself and creates human beings as moral, spiritual, rational, creative, volitional beings.

Francis Shaeffer

A worldview detached from the Trinitarian God leads to nihilism and a life that contradicts the theory

Monism (nirguna brahman)

All reality is ultimately one.

Maya

Any apparent differences are an illusion. No difference between the self and brahman exists

Existentialism

Blaise Pascal: choose God because alternative is far worse if your wrong. Soren Kierkegaard: Can't be a Christian only in name but also in action

How Christ fulfills the human vocation

Christ the second Adam set into motion a new creation and a reversal of the curse brought by the fall.

Tolerance

Classical definition: putting up with what you know to be false Contemporary definition: accepting all views as true

William Dilthey

Condition of the soul. All views about reality stem from a heart condition.

Ramanuja

Difference is the basis for knowledge.

Saguna Brahman

Differences exist but are all part of brahman (god). believed in saguna brahman

Pantheism (saguna brahman)

Differences exist but these are all part of brahman

Shankara

Differentiation is the essence of ignorance. Only Brahman exists. Believed in brahman nirguna.

Emotional vs. intellectual

Emotional: "I am in pain and need to know Gods presence." Intellectual: "Evil is a problem and there are good reasons for believing in God despite horrendous evils."

Eastern Othodox use of worldview

Emphasizes the place of liturgy/worship that informs theology. Emphasizes a sacramental approach to the world Sin brought a loss of priestly life

Depravity

Every aspect of our being (physical, emotional, volitional, spiritual, imaginative, moral) has been deeply affected by sin.

Evil (without belief in God)

Everyone must deal with the problem of evil. If you don't believe in Go you may think evil is just "bad luck" or is an illusion (eastern faiths) or is due to bad genes. Must also then determine where good comes from too.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - NIV

Immanuel Kant

First to use the term worldview. Welt anschauung = intuition of the world

Deism

God created the world but does not take an actively engage in it. Cosmic clock maker. No special miracles

Pre-modernism (<1650)

God furnished the basis for goodness, rationality, beauty, human dignity, and truth. St. Anselm: "I believe that I may understand." and "Faith seeking understanding."

G.K Chesterson (Orthodox)

Gospel re-enchants the world that a scientific world de-mystifies.

Truth

If a belief, story, idea, or statement doesn't match up with reality then it is false.

Relativist/perspectivalist

If a relativist says "that just true for you" then they opinion is trivial. If the say "xxx" applies to everyone then you are making an absolute statement, i.e. you are self contradictory.

Inscrutable vs. Gratuitous

Inscrutable: We can't figure out why so much evil exists (but God must have morally sufficient reasons) Gratuitous: There is pointless evil in the world and God could not have sufficient reasons for allowing it.

Non theistic scholars on human dignity

It comes from the Jewish Christian heritage.

Relativist personal motivation

John Searle: "it satisfies a basic urge to power. It seems too disgusting, somehow, that we should have to be at the mercy of the real world."

Judging

Judge not, or you too will be judged. Don't view yourself as morally superior. However, Christians can be civil though full of moral conviction.

Image of God

Kings and priests to co- rule with God and relate to him.

Logical Vs. Probabilistic

Logical: "If evil exists then an all good and all powerful God can not exist. Can only have one without the other." Response: God may have a sufficient reason for allowing evil Probabilistic: "Even if God and evil can coexist, the vast amounts of pointless evil means an all good and all powerful God probably does not exist." Response: Are we in the best position to determine whether evil is gratuitous?

Common Grace

Natural gifts: e.g. rain/sun Moral restraints: God restrains evil so that humans do not do all the evil that their depraved minds might do. Cultural goods: ability of unbelievers to perform acts of civic/cultural good

Brahman Nirguna

No differences or no qualities exist in god

Catholic view on worldview

No official position

Postmodernism (1960's - )

No universal truth, reason, or morality. Emphasis on preference, community, human misery, and virtual reality

Ludgwig Wittgenstein

Our perspective is based upon the language we use. We can't really know if our beliefs match up with reality. Bible is dominated by male oriented language.

Hinduism and male female equality

Problematic because there are no examples of a healthy man-woman relationship. E.g. Krishna stealing clothes of women while bathing just to see them naked.

Modernism (1650's-1960's)

Replaced God with human knowledge. Emphasis on truth, autonomy, scientific discovery, and human progress. Optimistic about human potential, skeptical about church authority. Rene Descartes: "I think therefore I am." Marxism, Communism, Rationalism

Roots, Shoots, and Fruits analogy

Roots - world voice articulated by a model religious spokesperson or deity e.g. Jesus. Shoots - philosophical, religious, intellectual, precepts. Fruits - World venue is the visible expression of beliefs through concrete social customs and practices.

Whitehead on Worldview

Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them."

Tat tvam asi

That thou art, i.e. a person has no distinct identity

Pslam 24:1

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

1 Corinthians 2:14

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit - NIV

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Protestant reformation and shaping of democracy

Transformative values: 1) Priesthood of all believers 2) Bible in the vernacular 3) Goodness of vocations Shaping of democracy: 1)Spread of mass education 2)Major colonial reforms (abolishing slavery) 3)Codification of legal protections for nonwhites

Friedrich Nietzche

Truth is a matter of perspective. Truth is an illusion.

Original Sin

We are born with a bent to sin/self centerdness Spiritual disease from Adams initial disobedience

Michael Foucault

What are the motives behind what someone says as true? What everyone says must be deconstructed. What people advocate as truth is done as a power play.

Relativism

Whats good for one person is not necessarily good for another

Connection between God and objective moral values

Without God moral values do not exist. Evolution breads hate and violence and does not account for the intrinsic value of humans. Evolution does not require that we act dutifully. If we are merely the products of evolution then how can we trust our minds for reason. Reason would not indicate truth but would just be a survival mechanism.

atman

a persons soul

Evil

a) the lack of corruption of goodness b) a departure from the way things ought to be. Evil therefore presupposes a standard of goodness/design plan, pointing us to God rather than away from God.