Saturday, November 3, 2012

Can you defend your faith?

I am going to start a new series on worldviews. I believe that us Christians really need to be able to defend our faith. What I am going to do is focus on one basic thing of seven different religions and what each one believes on that subject. The seven worldviews are, Christianity, Islam, Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism, Marxist-Leninist, and Postmodern.

Here is the first one it is one their actual worldview, some are a bit watered down-


Worldview-..is the way we view our world, and our place in it.[i]  Every person in the world has some sort of worldview, even if they don’t think so, how? Because a worldview is how you view your world and everything else, if you think that God does not exist and we have no reason, then that is your worldview. There are though some major worldviews, which one do you believe?
Christianity- Christianity is one of the largest worldviews with over 2.30 billion people (as of 2010)[ii] Christianity is a monotheist religion that believes the one and only God is the creator of all things, including the world. That he sent his son holy and perfect down to die for us, because we are sinners, on a cross, and three days later he rose from the grave and is now living. Christians believe in a afterlife, that if you believe in Jesus is God’s son, and you are a sinner, and that the only way to Heaven is by believing that Jesus died and rose again to save you from eternal damnation. It does not believe in anything contradicting the Bible, because the bible is God’s holy word, it does not have any lies in it.

Islam- The Islamic religion is also a very large religion, with 2.1 billion people as of 2011[iii] The Islamic religion is a monotheist religion also, and believing in Allah, the Islamic and Christianity religion are very close and also very different. They believe that Mohammad was Allah’s ultimate prophet, and that Jesus was just a good man and also a prophet, but Mohammad was Allah’s last prophet and most important. They have very strict beliefs, they must be able to repeat, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” They also must pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca. They believe that one day there will be the final judgment by God where he will decide wither you go to Heaven or Hell. They do believe in the Bible, but Muslims do not believe it is 100% true instead they believe the Qur’an was God’s final and full revelation.
Secular Humanist- Secular Humanists or just Humanists are between 4 to 5 million people[iv] they are an atheist religion, not believing in any god or higher being. They believe that we do not need a god, we are intelligent enough to be ethical and moral, It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently evil or innately good, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions.

 Marxist-Leninist- Many people thought that Marxist-Leninist had gone away because they really are just communists. They are also atheist and materialistic. I must say that I had never heard of Marxist-Leninist until I read Understanding the Times. And now I am much more cautious with which college I will be going to, since that is where Marxist-Leninist really thrives.
Cosmic Humanist- Or also known as the New Age movement is very close to Buddhism and Hinduism believing that all is god, and we all have an inner god. They are also getting very close to the Native American religions. They are looking for a Utopia, they are an all road lead to heaven group, Cosmic humanists "blur the line between physics and metaphysics," reveals Debra Rae. "To them, all life is energy; composite energy is god; and the promised expectation is 'life beyond the grave' by becoming god."[v]

Postmodern- There are three unifying values: 1) A commitment to relativism; 2) an opposition to rationalism; and  3) the promotion of culturally created realities, all of which are designed to deny the true worldview or belief system for which we would be willing to kill or to die.[vi] They believe that definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths do not exist. Most postmodernists are atheist or agnostic, but some do embrace the eastern thoughts and practices, while many are naturalists and humanists.



[i] UTT pg. 15- UTT stands for a book Understanding These Times
[ii] Wikipedia
[iii] Muslimpopulation.com
[iv] Wikipedia
[v] Renewamerica.com
[vi] UTT pg. 26

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