Secular Vs. Biblical Worldview

In the Bible book of Genesis chapters one through eleven is the story of the creation of the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and civilization. This is a story created by God, written by Moses and lived out by everyone, believers and nonbelievers. The first eleven chapters of Genesis do not set out to prove the existence of God, as some are trying to do today. These chapters simply put Him at the center of everything. The beginning of Genesis contains the account of creation, the fall of mankind into sin, procreation leading to civilization, the flood to bring about the re-creation, and finally the culminating account of man marveling in his own effort - the Tower of Babel. All of which creates the foundation of theology and the Christian’s worldview of how God intended things to function in our world. Genesis also forms a foundation for other religious and secular morals which aid in forming a worldview. By placing God at the center of everything, He creates the moral foundational worldview for cultures around the globe. In his book, The Universe Next Door, James W. Sire describes worldview as essentially this: “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, … about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides

A worldview is the overall structure that a human being can use to interpret the world and how it applies to their life individually. It is what people believe about the big questions in their lives; who are we, how did we get here, is God real and why are we here? In today’s modern world, there are many different views regarding the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and culture. This paper will focus on the worldview and implications of these topics based on the Bible, in particular, Romans 1-8, and how it still applies in today’s world.

Firstly, there is a set of Biblical assumptions about the natural world. In Romans 1:20, Paul says that “His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” (Romans 1:20, ESV) This verse is stating that the world naturally reveals the glory of God. The wonder of creation, from the mountains to the birds in the sky, all point towards the existence of a creator. This is known as natural revelation, which is the idea that

There a lot of differing worldviews in practice today. Every person has a worldview that is shaped by their experiences, pasts, families, traditions, values, and beliefs that form the core of who they are. The Christian worldview is no exception. This worldview is formed by the beliefs and teachings of the Bible. The worldview is shaped and centered around the view of who God is, the purpose of humanity, the true identity of Jesus, the restoration of humans to God, acknowledging the strengths and weakness of the worldview, and the practicality of living out the worldview.

By Faith we believe that God created the Natural World that He is the creator of all things. He is the source of all that live, and spoke the world into existence. The Bible begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genisis1:1) In Romans 1:20 (NLT) Paul tells us “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” God took a blank canvas and used his brush to paint a masterpiece called planet Earth. With us in mind, he painted magnificent sunrises and sunsets, mountains, animals, the stars, moon and the sky. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1 NIV) Sadly man set to out to invalidate creation and to take the glory away from God. Man had become wicked and began to follow after their own desires. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation

2 Part I According to (Merriam-Webster, n.d.), worldview is defined as a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint. This definition implies that the way an individual view the world may be due to a variety of factors such as their culture, ethnicity, and/or religion. For Christians, our worldview is shaped by the Holy Bible. Often, this book

Paul makes it clear that the world was created by God and that we are without excuse if we choose to deny that. Romans

Worldviews vary from person to person and faith to faith, resulting in everyone seeing the world through their own assumptions and beliefs. Out of the many worldviews discussed in the text, Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity, and in class three stood out to me for comparison. These three worldviews consist of Naturalism, Pantheism and Polytheism. Worldviews, although not always correct, are how people see the world and reflect on our expectations about life. Differences can be seen in beliefs such as if they believe in a spiritual world, a material world, or both. Worldview’s purposes are to explain the purpose of man and the world. All three worldviews attribute the problems in the world to different aspects based on their beliefs and have diverse notions of how to resolve the world problems. Although a few similarities can be found among these world views, there are multiple differences found.

The Christian world view tells us in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (ESV). This is the basis for our real story of how the world begun. The world on the other hand has many different stories, some believe we evolved from apes after a cosmic big bang created the universe, some believe in their own deity who created the world. As Bartholomew and Goheen point out, in today’s world there is a commitment to pluralism. They state that this world believes that we “should not even look for any such overarching story, one that could be true for all people, all communities, all nations – for to find such a thing would imply that not all stories are equally valid” (Bartholomew & Goheen, 2009, p. 12).

A biblical worldview teaches God as the supreme creator of life and his word governance the world you see. Seeing the world through this sense excludes opinions and a humanized analytical process, it reveals God’s teachings and principals in the bible (Pope, 2007). The Christian worldview begins with the existence of God in everything. Ephesians states,

Worldview differences should not cause automatic dismissal of a theory, but one should be certain the scientific evidence aligns with Biblical truths rather than contradicts it. Naturalism is a worldview at risk of undermining integration that does not align with Biblical truths. Naturalism, as a worldview, challenges the idea of integration because they believe only in the physical and material world with the universe being explained in terms of matter and energy. Distinguishing human qualities do not exist in this worldview unless the natural laws

A Biblical Worldview is a view that holds to the belief that there is absolute moral truth; no one can earn their way into Heaven with good deeds; the Bible is 100 percent correct in all aspects; Jesus Christ lived a life free of sin while He was on earth; and God is omnipotent, omniscience, and the ruler of the universe (Barna Group, 2009). It has been proven that one’s worldview has a powerful impact on the way he conducts his everyday life and the choices made in any given situation (Barna Group, 2009).

This paper will delve into a greater understanding of the following questions. What is the meaning of Worldview? What is meant by each of the four primary aspects of the Biblical worldview: creation, the fall, redemption and restoration? How does free enterprise comport with or reject creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration? How does socialism comport with or reject creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration? How does progressivism support or reject Biblical Worldview?

To compare the Christian worldview to the secular worldview of account, one must understand the definition of what a worldview is and what a Christian worldview looks like as well as what a secular worldview looks. According to Valk (2012), "Worldviews are those larger pictures that inform and in turn form our perceptions of reality. They are visions of life as well as ways of life, are individual and personal, yet bind adherents together communally" (p. 1). It is not uncommon for individuals to have different worldviews because the meaning of the word is a set of beliefs one uses to understand the world. All people grow up viewing the world differently because to the different things they experience in their lives. A worldview defines the

Secularism obviously is one of the concepts that derives from human, and contradict with Christian worldview. As people are moving towards modernization, they feel religion as