Competing World-Views

Part I

            If you watched the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye debate recently, you would’ve heard Ken Ham talking about world-views. What he was saying is that we all observe the same thing. It’s not like proponents of one position have “X” evidence, and their opponents have “Y” evidence. No, we all see the same earth and sky. We all see the same suffering and pain.
            If this is the case, how can people come up with so many different conclusions on life?
            The answer is a person’s worldview. We all have glasses that color how we look at things. If I believe that God exists, that will (or, well, should) affect how I look at life and how I act. However, if I believe God doesn’t exist, that will also affect my lifestyle.
            For instance, the believer in a god will look at pain and suffering and say, “Life shouldn’t be this way and one day it won’t be.”
            But if I don’t believe there is a god, I might say, “This is how it always has been and how it always will be.”
            We had the same evidence (pain and suffering), however, our starting (presuppositional) world-view affected our opinions.

Part II

            So, after that long-winded intro, let me get to the point. This next series will look at certain world-views and how they stack up in these areas:

1. How they explain the world around us
2. Their belief in how the world started (creation)
3. Their belief in how the world will end (heaven, judgement, etc.)
4. Their belief in what we should be doing in the meantime (conduct)
5. (If it isn’t obvious by this point) Their differences from Christianity

            I’ll go through Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses (because they are growing in America), Islam and atheism (because they are growing worldwide), and the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism (and their Western relative, New Agism).