So is Your Thinking Stinking?
How In The Worldview Do You Come Up With That? – Part 1
One believes the answer to our problems is what the other calls evil. One person’s nirvana is the next person’s hell. At the heart of these diverse outlooks is one’s view of God and how that deity relates to the world. This lens through which we observe and interpret everything is called a worldview, and every person has one.
That Makes Sense! A worldview is a set of assumptions that governs our explanation of life and everything in it—a collection of core beliefs we hold with or without deliberately choosing them. Our worldview is the big picture that guides us through life, and, we hope, through death.
That’s Nice – I’m Still Thinking So What? The word “worldview” sounds detached from everyday concerns, but understanding worldviews is critically important. Every belief we hold, every issue we consider, every topic we discuss, is connected to our worldview. Most human conflict arises from a clash between worldviews. Whether we consciously think of it or not, our determining our values and is grounding our life choices.
Think about this one: Agnosticism is the worldview that says we cannot know if God exists. The “soft” variety of agnosticism says we don’t know if God exists. The “hard” version asserts we can’t know if He exists. The soft agnostic modestly admits, “I don’t know if there’s a God.” The hard agnostic aggressively challenges others: “I don’t know if there’s a God, and you don’t either!” We’ll concern ourselves with the hard version, the committed worldview that no one can know if God exists—He’s completely unknowable.
Pause and for a moment think about this inconsistency. How is it possible to be claiming to know something of what it declares is unknowable. If this reality is unknowable, how does the agnostic claim that you don’t know anything, when you are claiming knowledge of that very think you don not claim to know about? And if you can know one thing (there is no God), you’re not really an agnostic (because you know something about God). Furthermore, asserting that God’s existence cannot be known presumes certain knowledge about Him, which is unknowable according to agnosticism.
On A More Personal Note – Almost everyone in hard times might qualify as an agnostic: “Where is God in the midst of my suffering?” I’ve asked this question and there are times it feels like God is far away. I have no easy answer. However, just because I don’t understand all there is to know about God, it does not mean He love me less and is not present in my troubles.
What I do actually know about God, limited as it is, actually makes a difference in my life, and God has made a difference in my life for over 25 years. This is my experience, and something for you to think about…
My info adapted from the, “5 minute Apologist”
