[Gary Petty] Everybody has a worldview. What's a worldview? Well, it's simply how you comprehend the world, how you comprehend society, people, how you look at everything and put it together. Everybody has a worldview. Worldview comes from our religion, it comes from our family, our culture, it comes from our own experiences. But what is your worldview? A lot of people don't even think about "What is my worldview? What are my concepts of how the world really works?" It's very interesting that there are three great worldviews in the United States today and across much of Europe and the Western world. One is secular humanism, one is new age, and one is Christian. Now, I say there are three worldviews. Within these views are a lot of different ideas, but they fall into three basic categories. 

Secular humanism is a very interesting worldview. This is from a secular humanism site. Here's what they base their worldview on. Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Now, that's their first two premises. It's very important when you realize that. Now, secular humanists are very popular and very common in our educational system. And in fact, drive much of our educational system in this country and in much of the Western world. That's why evolution is so important. In this viewpoint, all ideas about sexuality is a personal choice because, well, we're just an evolved animal. But the idea is that everybody needs to work together to come up with a democratized idea of what good and evil is, and then we can all share together for the good of everybody. 

The new age view is based on pantheism, that God is in everything and everything is in God. In the new age movement, there's a lot of emphasis on channeling and getting in touch with the spirits and getting in touch with yourself. And the reason why is is that God is in everything. In fact, in the new age movement, the whole purpose of life is to get in touch with the inner God and there's concepts like karma. In fact, the new age movement has a lot to do with Hinduism. They're very similar in many of their ideas. We're gonna talk about two of the four main aspects of any worldview, origins and meaning. 

What would you say is the Christian concept of origins or even for the meaning of humanity? The meaning of evil, the meaning of the problems we face in life. Origins and meaning. Well, let's look at what the scripture says because this is the basis of what the Christian worldview is. Here's what it says in the book of Genesis. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over all the fish and over all the sea, and over all the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and all the earth, and over every creeping things that creeps on the earth.' So, God created them male and female." When we look at the origins, the idea in Christianity of where humanity came from, there is a creator God and that Creator, God created human beings, both male and female in his image. That means we were created to have a relationship with him, we were created to have a relationship with the creator. That's the origins.

Then we get into meaning. Now, when we talk about meaning, we have a problem. If God created us in his wonderful creation, how did it get so messed up? And that's where Christianity has to deal with the concept of evil. When you read the first couple chapters of Genesis, you find out that after God made the first two human beings, there was an evil angel, a fallen angel that came in contact with human beings. God allowed him become Satan. He came in contact with them and they chose evil and God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden. Humanity was separated from God.

So, what's the meaning if we're all separated from God? Well, for our lives right now, our meaning is summarized in something that King David of ancient Israel wrote in a psalm. First, the psalms are so interesting because the psalms are actually song lyrics. What we find in the psalms are the pouring out of the very heart of a man who is struggling with the question of meaning. He understood the origins, he understood that he was part of creation of God, that God created all humanity, created everything, he understood there was evil, and now he's looking for meaning. And here's what he says because this is the driving force of our lives today in one simple idea. He said, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God."

We're separated from God, we're separated from our origins. And the meaning of life today is there is a god of this world. He is Satan. The Apostle Paul calls him the god of this world. And the god of this world deceives humanity and were drawn and cut off from God but God wants to draw us back. It's the concept of repentance. He says, "So pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God. When shall I come and appear before my God?" If you've ever seen a dog panting or a deer panting because they're just thirsty, it's hot, and they're looking for water and they're weak. David saw this, he saw animals like this, and that's what he uses as an allegory for his search for meaning. He knows what his origin is and he wants to go back to God. 

If you just in your beginning for a worldview, and we're gonna go through four aspects. We're gonna go through the other two aspects next time. But when you look at these four aspects of our worldview, and we start with this Christian viewpoint that we were created in the image of God. You have purpose, you have meaning. God wants something in your life and it's good for you, but the meaning is life is messed up because you have been cut off from God, estranged from God. And God is calling you back. And you must pant like an animal, you must thirst and hunger for that relationship with God. And when you do, your worldview changes. You begin to see everything around you differently. Ideas like in the secular humanist world or the new age you can reject easily. So, next time we'll go through the next two aspects of a worldview.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.