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WORLDVIEWS ON TRIAL
PART 1 of 4

 

By Debra Rae

March 9, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

A favorite boutique outfits its dressing rooms with flattering lights and what my sister and I laughingly call �skinny mirrors.� Add to the ambiance a fawning sales staff, and women can�t resist shopping there. For many, the illusion of looking younger and somewhat trimmer trumps the reality of �lumps and puffs� indicating otherwise!

The same rings true when it comes to worldviews that stroke the ego or promise special privilege. Rather than embrace stark biblical reality of their sinfulness and personal accountability to a holy God, some concede reality to the skewed, though self-pleasing reflection of a preferred worldview to the contrary.

Getting down to business, Christian apologist Dr. David A, Noebel defines a worldview as speaking to any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement, or religion that offers �an overarching approach� to comprehending God, the world, and man�s relationship to both.

In 21st century America, the four major worldviews at play are Secular- and/or Cosmic- Humanism, Marxism-Leninism, and traditional Christianity. Each defines an ultimate point of reference�be it the Imperial Self, the cosmos, the State, or the one true God. All four talk into every possible discipline from science to the arts; ethics to law, geo-politics to economics.

Contemporary exercise of opposing worldviews has exploded into what James Dobson and Gary Bauer identify as �nothing short of a great Civil War of Values throughout North America.� For this reason, it behooves us to become informed.

  • Worldview: Secular Humanism (Humanist Manifestos, I and II)

Not to be confused with �humanitarianism,� humanism dethrones God and, in His place, exalts man as the measure of all things. Its relativistic values exalt human worth based on self-determination through reason.

In the early sixties, two landmark US Supreme Court cases made way for godless humanism by giving the proverbial boot to traditional faith (in the form of school prayer and Bible reading). It was then that Secular Humanism emerged as a non-theistic religion whose organized system of beliefs is upheld devotedly by some 7.3 million humanists who acknowledge no supernatural being apart from humanity.

Key documents (Humanist Manifestos, I and II, 1933 and 1973, respectively) advance a �science�-based, one-world belief system, coupled with global economics poised to redistribute wealth. An anticipated new age of trans-national government exchanges Bible bedrock for naturalistic atheism, Darwinism, moral relativism, and socialism. Proponents aspire to control their own evolution by means of social or genetic engineering.

  • Worldview: Marxism-Leninism (Writings of Marx and Lenin)

German philosopher Karl Marx argued for transformation of human life and nature, tacitly claiming for the mass proletariat an egalitarian super status as reflected in the godless State.

When Lenin modified traditional Marxist doctrine to suit prevailing conditions in early 20th-century Russia, Marxism-Leninism was born and then served as base for communist ideology. Marxism-Leninism demands materialistic interpretation of world order.

To demonstrate inevitability of radical change, Marx used George Hegel�s dialectic in attacking religion and the social order of the European Industrial Revolution. In Hegel�s process, ends justify means. Not surprisingly, classic Marxism holds to the Robin Hood philosophy of distributing wealth; furthermore, the Marxist-Leninist maxim of earning one�s keep on planet earth is the very heart of the UN guiding principle of sustainable development.

In the words of the Trilateral Commission�s founding director Zbigniew Brzezinski, �Marxism represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man�s universal vision.� Never mind that �non-sustainable, non-producers� delegated to the low end of humanity�s totem pole include the elderly, stay-at-home moms, and those incapacitated physically or mentally. Moreover, in this paradigm, all human rights are granted, controlled, and/or withdrawn by government consisting of elitists deemed more highly evolved and acceptably enlightened than the masses.

  • Worldview: Cosmic Humanism (New Age Literature)

Cosmic humanists blur the line between physics and metaphysics by claiming themselves to be �Mother Earth�s consciousness.� Theirs is a pseudo-Christian patchwork of spirit-ism and avant-garde, �fourth-force� psychology. For them, all life is energy; composite energy is god; and the promised expectation is �life beyond the grave� by becoming god. New Agers attain to cosmic- or group- consciousness�i.e., godhood�by aligning and then fusing with the universal life-force. As part of her Ph.D. studies at the University of Queensland's School of Population Health, 51-year-old Rosemary Aird conducted surveys of 3,705 twenty-one year-olds from Brisbane, Australia. Herself an agnostic, Aird examined two different belief systems�the first, traditional belief in God; the second, a-traditional belief in a higher power other than God.

Findings demonstrated that, despite claim to spiritual illumination and wholeness, proponents of Cosmic Humanism are subject to higher rates of anxiety, disturbed and/or suspicious patterns of thinking, depression, and anti-social behavior. These, she surmises, arise from inordinate focus on self-transformation, self-fulfillment and self�enlightenment�in a word, self.

Most often by means of meditation, achieving an altered state of consciousness enables the Imperial Self to give way to collectivist spirituality defined by a coveted state of presumptive �godhood.� On the spiritual climb upward, evolution from embryo-god to �Christhood� through multiple reincarnations invites the me-centric process of �earned egoic advancement.�

  • Worldview: Biblical Christianity (The Holy Bible)

Christianity is founded, not primarily on universal principles, but rather on the perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Of the lineage of King David, Christ was born of a virgin. In what the Bible declares to be �the fullness of time,� He was fathered by God Himself.

His remarkable life mission was to �seek and save the lost��be they Jews or Gentiles. Without a doubt, the Gospel of Jesus Christ conveys supreme �good news.� You see, Jesus who �knew no sin� Himself became sin and accepted just retribution on Calvary�s Cross for past, present, and future sins of mankind. This selfless act bridged the divide of sin and, thus, enabled unlimited access to the heavenly Father.

Christ�s matchless ministry of just retribution, forgiveness, reconciliation, sanctification, empowerment, and ultimate glorification on behalf of �whosoever will come� delivers total restoration of body, soul and spirit hitherto tainted by sin. Created in God�s image and ever accountable to His authority, redeemed humans yield to the Holy Spirit and, over time, are fashioned into the very likeness of Jesus.

At His first coming, Jesus was a common step-son of a humble carpenter; however, His Second Coming will pack a punch like none other. His glorious appearance will halt the blood bath of Armageddon to usher in a millennial kingdom in which He will rule and reign in righteousness. Thereafter, the old will make way for a new heaven and earth. Evil will be defeated utterly and, at long last, redeemed humanity will experience what eye has yet to see, ear has yet to hear, and the heart has yet to fancy.

The Final Bow

Of today�s competing worldviews, Biblical Christianity takes the final bow. Indeed, the best of Western culture has the Christian worldview to thank for its extraordinary contributions in the arts and sciences. Throughout the decades, its positive impact on politics, education and popular culture is unparalleled.

In contrast, contesting views have served only to pollute the arts and blur the sciences. As we shall demonstrate in subsequent articles, their negative impact is reflected in anti-social behavior; it is evidenced in failing public education; and its fate is memorialized in collapse of the Berlin wall.

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True, the wisdom of our time boasts plenty of �bright ideas� and dupes enough to be ensnared by them. Rather than search for the fountain of youth, my purpose instead is pursuit of �a fountain of smart.� Please join me in this quest. Next week part two. For part two click below.

Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4,

� 2008 Debra Rae - All Rights Reserved

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Daughter of an Army Colonel, Debra graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa. She then completed a Master of Education degree from the University of Washington. These were followed by Bachelor of Theology and Master of Ministries degrees-both from Pacific School of Theology.

While a teacher in Kuwait, Debra undertook a three-month journey from the Persian Gulf to London by means of VW "bug"! One summer, she tutored the daughter of Kuwait's Head of Parliament while serving as superintendent of Kuwait's first Vacation Bible School.

Having authored the ABCs of Globalism and ABCs of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike. Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk radio with Sharon Hughes and Friends, and she contributes monthly commentaries to Changing Worldviews and NewsWithViews.com. Debra calls the Pacific Northwest home.

Web Site: www.debraraebooks.com

E-Mail: ABCs@debraraebooks.com

 


 

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Christian apologist Dr. David A, Noebel defines a worldview as speaking to any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement, or religion that offers �an overarching approach� to comprehending God, the world, and man�s relationship to both.