Worldview Paper 2

WVC 301 9A Christian Interpretation

Lavern Nash

August 8, 2015

Introduction
1 Peter 3:15 (ESV): "Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence". I chose to compare and contrast my Christian (Biblical) worldview with Naturalism. Genesis 1:1 (ESV): notes “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” My Christian belief is that God spoke, and the universe came into existence. Ron Nash (1999) notes: “A worldview contains a person’s answers to the major questions in life…It is a conceptual framework, pattern, or arrangement of a person’s belief.”(p. 13). Christians and Naturalist have different worldviews when it comes to ultimate reality. My Christian belief of ultimate reality is that God is the “ultimate”, however, Naturalist do not share the same belief, a naturalist’s belief is “that man lives in a closed universe and that the massive advances in the natural sciences have made God redundant and no longer needed as an explanation for existence and order in the universe.” God is the source of all things. He is the fulfillment of all scripture: He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He is the fulfillment of all promises God makes to His people. “The meaning of all the Scriptures is unlocked by the death and resurrection of Jesus.”(Goldsworthy, 2000, p. 54). The Naturalists thought is that the human mind is the source of the universe, they separate reality into realms known as subjective truth (religion & ethics) emotions and objective truth (science) reason. Naturalist, Bertrand Russell (1970) writes: “I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know” (p. 243).
John 1:1,14(ESV): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." According to Naturalist matter is the first cause (composed of atoms). God is no longer the creator and sustainer of the universe. The worldview from the perspective of the Naturalist is that the world is random, chaotic, and movement of matter. I disagree, my perspective of whether the world is good, evil, chaotic, and intelligent lies within the person, who you are in Christ determines how you view the world. The difference for Christians is our steps are ordered by God. When we put our focus on Him and allow Him to direct our paths chaos can be avoided. We are intelligent beings; created in the image and likeness of God. He has blessed us with His wisdom, and knowledge. The world is intelligent because it was created by a rational God. There are reasons for man’s existence, one being to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. From my perspective, our creator has given us what we need to sustain in this world. On the other hand, Naturalist belief is that the universe is a closed system, and everything has a natural explanation, every occurrence, even the structure of DNA. The man is absurd, the nature side of man allows him to depend on himself instead of God. Man thinks he is invisible. He doesn’t want to face reality and acknowledge that God is in control of all things, including him, this is the belief of the Naturalist.

The dictionary defines,” a human being as a woman, man, or child of the species that distinguishes from other animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance “(WD). According to Naturalist man is a body and has no soul. “Since all is made up of atoms, there is no spiritual part to him. Naturalist believes that the body is a system of imaginary gears, cogs, and ratchets-a machine” (2009). Their belief describes a man as a part of the cosmos. Man is considered to be matter; he does not transcend in the universe at all. Naturalist sees themselves as products of their social and family environment and the genetics given to them at birth. My belief of a human is a person made in the image of God and His likeness. We are rational beings we have a soul and body. Human beings have a reasoning mind, and God has given us dominion over creation. I believe when a human being dies “the body goes back to the dust whence it came Genesis3”19: Ecclesiastes 12:7; 2 Corinthians 5:1, where it remains until the last day "of earth's history. John 6:44; 54 at that point it will be raised in a new form, an immortal body" (ESV). A Christian knows it is possible to know things because we are formed in God's image, made with the capacity of rational thought, however, that is not the belief of the Naturalist their thought is just the opposite. According to those who are Naturalist the way we are developed from newborns into adults is a process of cause and effect and feelings and behavior derived from the brain and body. My relationship with God allows me to know right from wrong. He is the source of ethics and ethics are grounded in God's nature. As a Christian, we have the instinct of wrong and right. As Christians, we are not eliminated from sin, but a divinely fashioned character changes us from our sinful habits and forms us to be more like Christ. From the Naturalist perspective, it suggests that moral values come from human experience. Matt Hocutt (1980) says that human beings "may, and do, make up their own rules…Morality is not discovered; it is made "(p. 137). The naturalist has a problem with God’s Law and Standards of good, teachings, and moral truths. They have a problem with God being the author of Ethics. Naturalist thinks those who have their behavior shaped by the prospect of being held responsible for their actions are moral agents. It is imperative that we are held accountable for our actions. Being held account helps be responsible beings and pleasing in the sight of God that we can acknowledge when we are wrong and repent from that behavior; otherwise we would continue to commit sin.
In conclusion, Christians and Naturalist have different worldviews. Romans 1:22-23(ESV): “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

References Hocutt, Max. (1980). Toward an Ethic of Mutual Accommodation in Storer, Morris (ED.), Humanist Ethics. Buffalo: NY: Prometheus Books. Holy Bible (ESV) Sire, James. (2009). The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog (5th Edition). Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press