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*** SHOW NOTES (not a transcript) ***
Lead:
What’s the answer to what is wrong with the world? Today we compare how the various worldviews we’ve been looking at answer that question.
Intro:
Isn’t the answer to everything, “42?” I confess, I haven’t read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but sometimes it seems like that’s as valid an answer as anything, right? Today, of course, we wrap up our journey through spotting some distinctions in worldviews so that we can be better at dialogue.
Yesterday in our Bible segment we saw revelation of the Messianic kingdom which, as you’ll recall, is a key theme for Matthew as he makes the case to a Jewish audience that Jesus is the one.
Sponsor:
Today’s sponsor and provider of background music is Pip Craighead’s The Dandelion Project, and the new track is Night School.
Bible segment (read along with The Bible Project):
Passage: Matthew 15-16
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 67
Words: ~1416
Thinking/reflection segment:
Our journey so far.
Question 1: Zero, one, or more than one god?
Question 2: If one god, what is the relationship god has to the cosmos — the created order?
Question 3: If no god, how do you explain meaning and morality?
Comparison 1: How do different worldviews think about reality?
Comparison 2: How do different worldviews explain what’s wrong with the world?
Comparison 3: How do different worldviews present as an answer to what’s wrong? (2)
Atheism: If what’s wrong is superstition, projecting our own illusions on the world, and/or failing to be our authentic selves, the answer is self-rescue, scientism or pragmatism, and self-creation.
Monism: If what’s wrong is that there is no reality (or at least explainable reality) and such enlightenment needs to be experienced, we need to be enlightened to seeing that all is one, trust our intuitions, and connect with the universe so we can transcend boundaries and overflow with love.
Theism: If the deistic argument is that we’re crippled by superstition or organized religion, we need to use reason to transcend myth and fear so positivity will fuel personal and social growth. However, as theists (and in particular, Christians) point out that the real problem is that we fought against God’s love and law, refusing his sovereignty, and have become alienated and sinful, even in our very natures, so the answer isn’t ours, it’s His — it was God who launched a rescue mission of love through the person and work of Jesus to cover our guilt, giving us evidence and hope in His sinless life, death on the cross, and death-conquering resurrection.
As I said yesterday, the problem of evil is a problem for every single worldview. The answer? Well, that’s the difference between Christianity and all other religion — religion that says, “Do this, and you’ll get to God or some outcome,” when Jesus said, “I already did it for you, so the question is whether or not you will trust me.”
Wisdom segment:
Passage:
Translation:
Verses:
Words:
Love you!
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Norman L. Geisler, “Atheism” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 56.
(2) Tom Price and David Montoya, "Belief Mapping: Discover Your Unique Way of Seeing the World" (handout presented in a contemporary spirituality class at Oxford Centre for christian Apologetics -- Business Programme, July 4, 2019). Learn more at BeliefMapping.com.
Other:
Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, When Skeptics Ask (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1990), 2. This, by the way, is a brilliantly organized work on apologetics, approachable if you don’t have a doctorate in philosophy or theology, and is a book I’d heartily recommend.
Cameron Blair, “Worldviews” blairs.id.au (blog), 2005, http://blairs.id.au/worldviews/. Accessed August 24, 2019. This is a brilliant flowchart if you want to go more deeply.