Anthony W. Brooks
I’ve always had a fascination with how people think and perceive the worlds around them. Clear thinking is the friend of liberty, it’s not until you see someone paddling a canoe with a canary that your freedom starts to diminish. What seems to be the problem officer? The problem is that in the absence of a firm foundation the whole theater of human existence slips into absurdity.
Foundations are important. Purpose is important. Values are important. If the lenses you wear don’t give you these things then you are living in senselessness.
Alas I Haven’t Established My Point
We call these lenses worldview. A worldview is a set of assumptions in your mind, we call these presuppositions, and these presuppositions are carried into every social, political, familial, and spiritual encounters that we have. All people have presuppositions and the person who says they don’t are slaves to them.
For Atheists the presupposition tends to be the absolute sovereignty of man. This means that man, the rational one, is the highest authority on earth. The problem here is the issue with of creation and uniformity. So the next presupposition of the atheist is uniformity. The problem here is that the atheist has no logical ground to stand on, but instead begs the question. The atheist appeals to the past to justify his presuppositions about the future. He presupposes that gravity will maintain itself, the sun will come up, and unicorns aren’t taking over downtown San Francisco, but he has no basis to believe any of these things because all of this is based on past events and that is question begging at it’s finest.
The Christian has a basis to believe these things. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” – Hebrews 1:3 God is ultimate because he cannot appeal to anything higher than himself. So when we appeal to God we are making an argument from the impossibility of the contrary. They may not like this but it is a valid and logical argument to make. Either God exists or he doesn’t. If the contrary is illogical than the positive claim that God exists is true. This is not a false dichotomy but a real one.
Worldview Needs To Be Consistent
This worldview that we have as Christians needs to be consistent and ultimate. Truth is not fleeting or temporary. Truth is not like a piece of stationary that you pull out of a desk drawer whenever you might need it. Truth is permanent. So like a pair of prescription glasses we wear our worldview in front of our eyes and see all things through these lenses and interpret the world around us. These lenses are scripture and the truth found within. And so the call to a Biblical worldview is actually a call to defeat cowardice. Don’t be a coward and only appeal to scripture in the confines of your bedroom with the door shut and music blaring. Appeal to scripture in the marketplace of ideas. This is the only way we grow the church.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Picture: Cornelius Van Til. The Father of Worldview (Presuppositional) Apologetics.
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