Apologetics - Unit 7

Two tasks tonight! - A Worldview - What is it? - Why it matters? - Apologetics and Worldviews - The Christian Worldview? - Compared with other common Worldviews?

A World View? I WAS NOT, I WAS, I AM NOT

A World View? The network of fundamental beliefs we each hold that help us to think about and/or act in the real world. They explain life and give us meaning and purpose.

Worldviews direct our Decisions WHY YES?WHY NO?

We live out of our world view Our choice to act in one way rather than another, or even not to choose consciously at all, but to do just what comes to us naturally, comes from our perspective on who we are and where we fit into our world. We all have a world view, and that world view influences the way we act… Ps. We are not consistent beings! (Remember the Atheist Prime Minister on Racism)

Classic components of World Views What people believe concerning:  Is God real, what do I know about Him?  What does it mean to be human?  What is right/wrong?  What will happen when I die?  What is my meaning/purpose in life?

The Christian World View Basic beliefs: About God? - Rev 4:11, Acts 17:24-25, Hebrews 1:1-3 About our world? - Psalm 33:6-9, Gen 1:27-28 About our situation? - Ephesians 2:1-9 About our purpose? - Ephesians 2:10, 1 Peter 3:15 About our destiny? - Romans 8:18-25, 2 Peter 3:10-13

Encountering other World Views Three overriding principals - Discover underlying beliefs in conversation - Discern whether you can address them - Respond in a way that points to Jesus

Breaking down other world views

- Does it fit the facts? Correspondence - Does is make sense in a system of belief? Coherence - Does it work in the real world? Pragmatic - Is it personally satisfying? Personal - Do it’s underlying pre-suppositions pass scrutiny? Consistent - Does it have good credentials? Accepted broadly We’re aiming to help people investigate the ground they’ve built they’re lives on, solid ground or shifting sand? Then we seek to present a coherent Christian world view – showing how the gospel fits the facts, makes sense and is personally essential and deeply practical - We point them to Jesus!

Fundamental Beliefs about Reality -God is outside his world and in control -God is his world -God’s world is part of him -God is a fiction of our world

Islam

Buddhism Fundamental Beliefs: - There is one and only one (indestructible) being or substance that exists and in which all things share. Reality is therefore one. - To show equal love to all people without distinction and unswerving kindness to all members of the animal kingdom - The universe was evolved, not created; it functions according to set laws, not the will of any God - The truths of Buddhism are natural having been taught in successive world periods by illuminated Buddha's - Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, this unsatisfied causes rebirth, rebirth causes sorrow. To rid sorrow we must destroy ignorance - Destroy ignorance by an all-embracing altruism in conduct, growth in intelligence, wisdom in thought, destruction of lower pleasures - The desire to live, being the cause of re-birth, once extinguished means nirvana can be attained through meditation - Right meditation leads to enlightenment or development of the Buddha like faculty which is latent in every person - Essence of Buddhism is to cease from all sin, to get virtue, to purify one’s heart - The universe is subject to natural causation (force of karma) Merits/demerits of past life determines state in present one - Remove obstacles to good karma by 1) kill not 2) steal not 3) indulge not in forbidden sexual pleasure 4) lie not 5) take no intoxicating or stupefying drug/liquor

Naturalism Man is the product of causes which has no provision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his hopes, his fears, his loves and beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collations of atoms…that all the labours of the ages…are destined to distinction in the vast death of the solar system…if not beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only with the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built… Bertrand Russell (British Philosopher; )

Ravi Zacharias on the importance of understanding world views in apologetics