THE REALITY OF GOD PART 2 – WORLDVIEWS & “TRUTH”

If we’re going to take on the BIG GOD QUESTIONS – we’ve got to have a starting point to set the table for our understanding.  So, we’re going to talk about something you may have – or – have not thought about….at least in these terms.  But you will instantly recognize what we’re talking about.  And that is ‘Worldviews.’

Let’s face it: We all have a worldview.  It comes with the territory of living.  But since a lot of folks might be unfamiliar with the term we need start with a definition.  A worldview is a ‘Theory of Everything.’  It defines how and why everything operates.  The American Scientific Affiliation defines it like  this: “A worldview is a theory of the world, used for living in the world.  A world view is a mental model of reality — a framework of ideas & attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life, a comprehensive system of beliefs.”   ^[i]  It answers the big questions: Is there a God?  What’s He like?  Is there purpose in life? And what is the meaning of life.  In some sense, our worldview will be wholly personal; in others it will fall into broad patterns defined by religious or philosophical orientation.  It of course will be fed by our rational interpretation of events.  But it will also be influenced by what we are taught, by our fears – and by our prejudices.  Many people rarely if ever challenge their worldview – and there are others in which it has become so ingrained that no amount of “Truth” will move them to a more reasoned position.  Still others believe that it is merely a matter of preference and choice.  They argue that no one religion or philosophy can have the full “Truth.” So they all must have a piece of it.  These conclude that all ways lead to the same place anyway.  [This is but a comforting exercise in illogic, as we will argue later.]

It is generally held that a worldview must answer five essential questions.

1. Origin: Where did we come from?
2. Identity: Just who are we?
3. Meaning: (The ‘Why are we here?’ question)
4. Morality: How are we to live?
5. Destiny: Where are we headed when this life is all done?

The most important factor in determining our answers to those questions depends on whether God does or does not exist.  It is the essential question.^[ii]  There are four basic worldviews.  Each will answer these questions in a different way.

1. THEISM: God exits and He is an eternal and self-existent Being
2. MATERIALISM: Matter and energy and the laws of nature are the ultimate reality. They define and determine everything.  As Carl Sagan put it: “The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.”
3. DEISM: God exists. But He doesn’t interfere in His creation.  He just lets it run any-old-way it will.  Good luck to ya!
4. PANTHEISM: God is a Force. This Force is NOT rational, NOT conscious.  And most importantly, the physical world – the cosmos – is all a part of this god.  And so are we.  The conclusion: We are therefore, in a sense, divine beings ourselves.  (How convenient!)^[iii]

Let’s just look at two of these worldviews, Materialism and Theism, which includes Christianity.

 THE MATERIALIST WORLDVIEW

1. Origin: One big cosmic accident
2. Identity: Humans are just the animal products of natural forces – A higher form of cosmic goo
3. Meaning: There is no higher purpose for our existence
4. Morality: There is NO OBJECTIVE RIGHT OR WRONG – We get to make it up
5. Destiny: Nothingness

By way of comparison let’s look at the Theistic worldview – and narrow that down even further to the Biblical / Christian variety.

THE THEIST – (CHRISTIAN) – WORLDVIEW

1. Origin: We come from God. God said: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)  We have the imprint of Divine DNA somewhere in our fallen nature.
2. Identity: John 1:12 tells us we have the “right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
3. Meaning: Our purpose then is to serve the living God, our Creator and Father
4. Morality: His pefect nature that becomes the basis for our Morality. We are to “love the LORD your God” with our heart, soul, strength and mind. (Luke 1:27)
5. Destiny: Eternal Life with our Father and Creator

But the question should be – not which worldview we prefer – but rather which more perfectly conforms to reality.  And that is where we stumble up against the notion of absolute “Truth.”  There is this notion going about that everyone can have their own ‘truth.’  That there is no overriding “Truth.”  Post Modernism promotes the notion that “Truth” can be specific to the individual.  Of course, that is logically impossible.  You see, the existence of ‘objective truth’ – is important – because “Truth” – reality, if you will has consequences.  What if I’m wrong in my religious beliefs.  What if Islam is the only way.  Then I, as a Christian would have made a fatal miscalculation and sentenced myself to an eternity in Hell.  So it becomes a very pragmatic thing to ascertain and believe only those things that are actually – and objectively – True.  But how do we find this “Truth.”  Can we believe the holy books?  OK, then which one?  The Bible gives us one set of truths, the Koran another contradictory explanation of reality.  Then there’s the teachings of Buddha and Hinduism – and we’ve only scratched the surface of truth-claiming philosophies.  But we are looking for a philosophy in the classical sense; one that is rational and supported by the evidence and seeks to find “Truth” through science, evidence and logic.^[iv]     

 Now before we go on we’ve got to understand one thing: We can’t even have an argument about whose right about things if we think that “Truth” is relative.  We’ve often seen or heard it said by ‘intellectual types’ that ‘All truth is relative,’ or ‘There are no absolutes.’  But these are actually self-defeating statements.

All truth is relative?  Well is that a relative truth or an absolute truth?

There are no absolutes?  Now, is that an absolute truth?

Here are some of the real facts about Truth.

1. Truth is Discovered. It does not depend on us knowing about it.
2. Truth is True across cultures.
3. Truth Does Not Change when our beliefs change.
4. All TRUTH is Absolute! As Geisler and Turek put it in their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist: “Contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible.”^[v]

This squishy thinking goes back millenia. The Gospel of John records an exchange between Pontius Pilate and Jesus on the matter.  Jesus had just told the Roman Procurator “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  Pilate replied: “What is truth?” (John 18:37, 38)  It was a question dripping with scorn and skepticism, not a serious inquiry on Pilate’s part.  And how very presciently it anticipated the post-modern mindset.  What is truth?  The existentialist question screams at us individually and corporately, across the noise and clutter of a culture, pregnant with much knowledge and so little wisdomWhat is truth?  We are often a society that little cares, consumed as we are by our toys and indulgences.

Still others are trapped by the alluring notion of ‘Tolerance’ as the supreme ethic.  Some will say: ‘There is no absolute truth in religion.’  And by that standard might not all religious beliefs be valid?  The climate of unquestioning tolerance would have us believe they could be.  Who are we to judge one over another?  Our culture speaks again.  There is no absolute truth.  It is the era of the subjective.  Each individual is entitled to his own specific truth.  ‘If you believe it, it is true for you.’  It is the reign of relativism.  This tolerance has come to mean unqualified and unquestioning acceptance.  To judge is evil.  Even to judge evil is evil.  They have a point if there is no OBJECTIVE TRUTH to base judgment.

But the fact is, people don’t live that way.  We all live with a sense of what is fair treatment and what is not, a sense of Evil, if you will.

Logic tells us this can’t be so.  Our experience confirms it.  Evil is still going to be evil.  Murder is always wrong.  Good is still good.  No matter how some of our intellectual elite may argue to the contrary, there is some transcendent morality, even if the bar has been lowered.  Across cultures and time, man senses this within.  It is historical fact that not all behaviors are morally equivalent.  Prostitution, stealing, murder and adultery are in no way equivalent to sex with love, honesty, non-violence and fidelity.  Some behaviors are inherently better than others.  Evil is evil, in that it celebrates the self at the expense of others.^[vi] Is this not a truth?  And there is this: If there is a transcendent morality: Where does it come from?  If there is “Truth:” What is its source?  The atheist is hard pressed at this point to give a rational answer.  In the world of the ‘accidental cosmos’, a world without purpose or meaning the notion of a transcendent morality is meaningless.  And a notion of Evil and Good are merely the artificial constructs of human beings – legislating a societal code of morality according to their own interests or prejudices.

Take it then to religions: Can all religious belief really be of equal value?  Some will argue that because of a some similar moral code they are at bottom, essentially the same.  But the truth of the matter is exactly the opposite.  The world’s major religions are at odds on so very many essential points and only superficially similar.  They disagree on the nature of who God is, on the nature of man, the existence and meaning of sin, on creation, and heaven and hell.  Hinduism teaches evil is an illussion.  Islam says that Allah could not have a son.  Christianity teaches that the death and rising of the Son of God, Jesus, is essential for the salvation of Mankind.  And the list goes on.  These truths that they teach are mutually exclusive.  Are we to embrace the religious beliefs of cannibals or Satanic cults that call for child sacrifice?  And what of Muslim terrorists?  Are their beliefs equally valid?  As Geisler and Turek again point out: “Contrary to popular opinion, major world religions do not ‘all teach the same things.’ They have essential differences and only superficial agreements.  All religions cannot be true, because they teach opposites.”^[vii]

So I hope we’ve set the table.  We’ve talked about worldviews and the nature of “Truth” and briefly surveyed some competing systems of religious thought.

[i] What is a worldview? — Definition & Introduction, The American Scientific Affiliation, http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/views/,   Viewed January 29, 2015

[ii] Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist,   Crossway, 2004, pg 20

[iii] Dr Stephen Meyer, Does God Exist (DVD), True U, Truth Project, Focus on the Family,

[iv] Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist, Crossway, 2004, pgs 52-53

[v] Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist, Crossway, 2004, pgs 37-38

[vi] God and Mathematics, Christian Evidence, April 29, 2019, https://www.christianevidence.net/2019/04/god-and-mathematics.html

[vii] Norman L Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith t6o Be an Atheist, Crossway, 2004, pgs 46-48, 50