A worldview is the lens through which we see the world around us and our understanding of where we come from, the purpose of our being, and how our story ends.
Everyone has a worldview, whether we realize it or not. Philip Ryken, in his book titled Christian Worldview: A Student’s Guide, defines it as “what we presuppose. It is our way of looking at life, our interpretation of the universe, our orientation to reality.”[1] The biblical worldview is by far the oldest and most commonly accepted worldview in mankind’s history, but not without contest. Unlike the more mechanical understanding of the world in naturalism, which relies on data that it sees scientifically as reality; or the ever growingly popular subjective and liberal postmodernism, which only sees what an individual chooses to see as real; we find that the biblical worldview provides timeless answers about origin, purpose, worth, and destiny.
Naturalism
The Naturalist sees the world as it is through the lens of science, through what can be calculated, observed, and cognitively recognized.
It is a system of belief grounded in and justified by the progress in the natural sciences. They lay claim to every scientist that ever existed and point to their findings to prove their theories, even if some of these scientists themselves may have held a different worldview, they assert that their discoveries fortify naturalism. They go as far as saying that, “the works of Renaissance humanists were thought to redound to the greater glory of God, this was a derivative effect, a consequence rather than a cause of their intrinsic value as human creations.”[2] Their traditions credits Thales, a philosopher who lived and worked in the ancient Greek kingdom of Ionia in the 7th Century BCE, as the grandfather of naturalism. One of the major role players in the progression of naturalism was Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Prado writes that, “Though Darwin’s scientific theories caused political and cultural turmoil, they also helped give birth to a new school of American philosophy, known as naturalism, which emerged as an alternative to traditional philosophy by grounding philosophical thought thoroughly inside nature.”[3]
By completely denying the spiritual world, the naturalist has no thought of an afterlife, as life on earth is the only life they hold on to.
They also don’t have a clear answer to questions of origin either, as there is an uncaused cause that needs to be accounted for in the beginning of life. Science requires a cause to every effect, and although there are many answers to the effects of our natural world, the ultimate cause of it all has yet to be answered by the naturalist.
Postmodernism
One of the major themes in postmodern philosophy is a denial of universal objective truth.
It’s an evolved form of modernism which finds its origins in the philosophical work of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), with his assumption that we cannot know things in themselves and that objects of knowledge must conform to our faculties of representation.[4] Simply meaning, truth is relative to what individuals or society make it to be. Michael Foucault (1926-1984) is a French postmodernist who influenced the concept that words can mean what the reader want it to mean, regardless of the author’s intent. Therefore, objective or universal truth cannot be achieved, our words correspond only to other words and, in the end, create our understanding of reality.[5] Postmodern philosophy is geared toward the individual holding the power of free will to determine what reality is as it pertains to matters of identity, purpose, and end. Even matters of morality are left to subjective reasoning. Since they deny the existence of God, there is no absolute truth or absolute morality.
Biblical Worldview
The biblical worldview gets its narrative from a scriptural understanding that God created mankind in his own image (Gen 1:26-27).
Man’s purpose therefore can only be obtained from the Creator. By being created in the image of God, the mantle of rule and dominion is ascribed to mankind with a strict requirement to adhere to the Creator’s commands, as God remains the ultimate Ruler. Man, however, disobeys God’s law and brings a curse upon himself and the earth (Gen 3). Because of sin the problem of moral evil enters the world and it is beyond mankind’s ability to resolve the issue. Martin Luther (1483-1546), John Calvin (1509-1564) and other Reformers used the term "Total Depravity" to articulate what they claimed to be the Augustinian view that sin corrupts the entire human nature.[6] Along with the curse comes a promise that, through the birth of a woman God would send a Savior to defeat evil (Gen 3:15). That promise is fulfilled by God sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross as a redeeming sacrifice for the sins of the world (Rom 5:12-21). Jesus Christ is then resurrected from death and sits at the right hand of God as Head of all creation (Acts 7:55-56; Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1). All who believe in the name of Jesus Christ are saved from the eternal punishment and wrath that still awaits those that remain in sin (Heb 6:26-27). Those who believe, however, are promised an eternal glory in the presence of God in heaven. A life after natural death, where there is no more sin, pain, or suffering (Rev 21:1-4).
A Comparative Look
One colossal difference between a biblical worldview and that of the naturalist and the postmodernist is the existence of God. The Bible also relates answers of origin, purpose and destiny that offer much hope for mankind, that the other two views fail to achieve.
If there is no life or absolute truth outside of what we see with our natural eyes or imagine with our natural senses, then we become an end to ourselves, and the only guarantee for nature is death.
Believers see beyond their physical capabilities and look to the Source of all things to find truth and life. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and to believe in Christ means having our eyes and understanding open to receive true life.
Naturalist believe that mankind is a unique being with far superior intelligence and potential above all other creatures on earth. This is a belief that is shared with the biblical view, as Man was created in God’s image. Those that hold a biblical worldview can use that vital connection in reasoning to guide naturalist to discover why we are so unique; it is because we reflect the highest Supreme Being that ever was and ever will be.
For the postmodernist, having free will is something the biblical worldview agrees on. God created man with the ability to choose from the beginning, when God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:16-17). We must, however, convey that free will doesn’t negate absolute truth. Yes, we may choose, but there is such a thing as right or wrong choices.
The truth doesn’t submit to our will, but rather, we must submit to the truth.
Conclusion
The naturalist view does not provide a sufficient cause and effect on how everything came to be and will never reach a point that it provides all the necessary answers. We are created by design and only our Creator has all the answers. The postmodernist has lost all sense of reality and chosen to live a lie rather comply with the truth. This, in essence, is the cause of mankind’s original sin; believing the lie of our own imagination. There is only one truth and that is the word of God, laid out in the biblical worldview and the pages of Scripture.
[1] Philip Ryken, Christian Worldview: A Student’s Guide, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), Ch 1 [2] Ignacio Prado, “History of Naturalism,” Naturalism, para 10, accessed May 9th, 2019. https://www.naturalism.org/worldview-naturalism/history-of-naturalism [3] Ibid, para 18 [4] Gary Aylesworth, “Postmodernism,” Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy, September 30, 2005, accessed May 9th, 2019. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/ [5] All About Worldview, “Postmodern Philosophy,” 2002-2019, accessed May 9th, 2019. https://www.allaboutworldview.org/postmodern-philosophy.htm [6] Millard J. Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine, 3rd Ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 406-409
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