{"id":987,"date":"2011-10-06T13:16:32","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T13:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christian-gospel.info\/?page_id=987"},"modified":"2021-01-03T15:46:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T15:46:44","slug":"do-you-have-a-world-view","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/?page_id=987","title":{"rendered":"Your world-view"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of our beliefs are based on a world-view, the way we think about the world.\u00a0 If we accept an atheistic world-view we shall interpret evidence provided by science in an atheistic way, with no allowance for the idea that there is a Creator God.\u00a0 On the other hand, if we\u00a0believe there is a God we will assess the findings of science in the light of the Word of God, the Bible.\u00a0 Once we accept the Bible we can make sense of everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

That this is circular reasoning is accepted, but so is the reasoning of the atheist.\u00a0 He has decided that there is no God, and sees everything in that context.\u00a0 But that is a circular argument.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must remember that circular reasoning is inevitable when we are talking about ultimate authority, for authority, if it is to be ultimate, cannot have anything beyond it to prove it to be true.\u00a0 So how shall we decide which is right?<\/span><\/p>\n

The only way is to see which viewpoint makes sense.\u00a0 Any world view that (i) is not internally consistent, (does not contradict itself) or, (ii) that does not provide the right conditions to enable us to make sense of the universe, is not correct.\u00a0 The atheistic viewpoint fails on both these counts.\u00a0 On count (i) it fails because the atheistic viewpoint is held on the basis that “only empirical evidence is valid”.\u00a0 That is, only things observed scientifically can be used in evidence.\u00a0 Yet how does the one asserting this know that “only empirical evidence is valid”, since he cannot test his idea empirically?\u00a0 He accepts his idea without proof.<\/span><\/p>\n

On count (ii) the viewpoint fails because it does not provide those things we take for granted if we are going to assess things.\u00a0 For example, the laws of logic.\u00a0 How can we prove the laws of logic without using the laws of logic?\u00a0 We have to accept them as being true.\u00a0 But this is not what happens when an atheistic viewpoint is adopted, for that ideology says there is no mind behind the universe, and therefore there is no basis for orderly thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

We could set this out as follows:<\/span>
\n If there is no mind there is no order;<\/span>
\n if there is no order there is no sequence of thought;<\/span>
\n if there is no sequence of thought there is no logic;<\/span>
\n if there is no logic there is no conclusion;<\/span>
\n if there is no conclusion there is nothing settled;<\/span>
\n if there is nothing settled, there is nothing worth believing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do the laws of logic come from?\u00a0 Only the theistic viewpoint has the answer to that question.\u00a0 So the atheist has to “borrow” the laws of logic from the Christian, in order to deny that the Christian viewpoint is correct.\u00a0 His system, therefore does not provide us with any rational basis for thought or logic, and therefore has nothing to offer.\u00a0 So when the atheist says “There is no God”, he is making a rational statement; but if there is no God there are no rational statements.\u00a0 His reasoning is self-defeating, and therefore cannot be true.\u00a0 If the atheist protests that he is making a rational statement, then the reply is simple, namely, that he is borrowing from the Christian viewpoint to deny the Christian viewpoint.\u00a0 His own viewpoint does not provide him with the means to make the statements he makes.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we accept the laws of logic as being of value, we have to ask where that idea comes from.\u00a0 The Christian has the answer, for it is found in the Bible, the Christian Scriptures.\u00a0 When God made man at the beginning, He made him in His own image and likeness, Genesis 1:26,27.<\/span><\/p>\n

This involves at least three things:<\/span>
\n \uf076 First, God has personality, so Adam was given personality, enabling him to express the character of God.<\/span>
\n \uf076 Second, he was given spirituality, the ability to appreciate God and respond to Him.<\/span>
\n \uf076 Third, he was given rationality, the ability to think, perceive and reason logically.\u00a0 This means that man had the capacity from the very beginning to understand and reason, since God made Him like Himself, able to think and come to conclusions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why would God make man like this?\u00a0 Because He desires a creature to bless, and to have fellowship with, and most importantly, to worship Him.\u00a0 Unless you come to terms with this reason for your existence, then your time on earth will have been wasted, and you will not realise the potential that God has in mind for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you are told, for instance, that “the earth is billions of years old”, then you should assess that statement in the light of what the Bible says.\u00a0 (Remember we have shown that the atheistic viewpoint, which dismisses the idea of God, is not logical and rational, and therefore has nothing positive to offer in the discussion).\u00a0 The Bible says that God made the heaven and the earth “in the beginning”, Genesis 1:1, and then goes on, in the Book of Genesis and elsewhere, to give measurements of time to enable us to know how far back in time the beginning is.\u00a0 By giving us the ages of the men who lived in the first centuries, both when they had a certain son, and also of their total age, we are able to compute how long the events of the book of Genesis took to unfold.\u00a0 Then by certain periods of time that are given later, we are able to say with confidence that the earth is a little over 6000 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before you dismiss that conclusion as being ridiculous, you would be well advised to go back to what we said at the beginning- that the atheistic viewpoint is not logically valid.\u00a0 So the findings of true science, (as opposed to the speculations of scientists), must be seen in the light of the only world-view that is open to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

We should be on our guard for statements of men of science which are made as if they are proved facts, but which are nothing more that ideas.\u00a0 Ideas, moreover, which have come from minds that do not want there to be a God.\u00a0\u00a0Yet all the time evidence is coming to light which shows decisively that there is a God who created all things.\u00a0 Because this is so there is a consequence.\u00a0 It is this, that we shall have to give account to God for our reaction to Him and His truth.\u00a0 We invite you therefore to look at some of the other material on these pages, so that you may come into a living and loving relationship with the God who made you, and longs to have fellowship with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please feel free to respond to this post by e-mailing martin_margaret3@yahoo.co.uk<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of our beliefs are based on a world-view, the way we think about the world.\u00a0 If we accept an atheistic world-view we shall interpret evidence provided by science in an atheistic way, with no allowance for the idea that there is a Creator God.\u00a0 On the other hand, if we\u00a0believe there is a God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-987","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4707,"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/987\/revisions\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiangospel.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}