“Introduction & Worldview
Thinking”
Christopher Ullman, Instructor
Christian Life College
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Ronald Nash
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Ronald Nash
 Author of more than 30 books on philosophy and theology o
Life's Ultimate Questions: an Introduction to Philosophy o
Faith and Reason: the Search for a Rational Faith
 Professor Philosophy and Theology at Reformed
Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida
 Lectured at more than fifty colleges and universities in the
United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union
 Served two terms as an Advisor to the US Civil Rights
Commission and serves a s a Fellow of the Christianity
Today Institute
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Peter Kreeft
 Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at
Boston College and at the King's College (Empire
State Building), in New York City. He is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 67 books including:
Handbook of Christian Apologetics , Christianity for Modern Pagans , Fundamentals of the Faith , and
The Philosophy of Jesus .
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“Any Questions?”
 What are the four great philosophical questions?
1.
What is? (a question about being)
2.
3.
4.
How can we know what is? (a question about truth)
Who are we? (a question about self)
What should we be? (a question about goodness)
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Is Jesus a Philosopher?
 No, not an academic one.

Yes, but isn’t everyone?
 Yes, in a middle sense, like Confucius, Buddha,
Muhammad, Solomon, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal
 Look how full of argument he is!
 Mark 12:14-17
 Luke 12:54-57

Let’s explore how Jesus is a philosopher
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Worldview: What it means
 A set of presuppositions we hold about the basic make-up of our world

The sum total of a person’s answers to the most important questions in life
 A set of spectacles through which we view the events of life
 A lexicon for experience
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Worldview Metaphors
 Camera filter and lens
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 Controlled vocabulary
Worldview Metaphors
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Worldview Metaphors
 Building framework
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Presuppositions: Knowledge Starting
Points
 You have to BELIEVE something before you can
KNOW anything

Godel’s Theorem

The “Why Exercise” to re-enforce learning
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Worldview: Why bother, if we have facts?

Facts don’t exist in theory-free ether
 You have to believe something before you can know anything. –
Augustine
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Worldview: Why bother, if we have facts?
 A person in the possession of a “fact” already has a worldview that makes that fact relevant to him

If you don’t have that worldview, the fact won’t be relevant to you
Where are my clothes?
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Worldview: Why bother, if we have facts?
 Examples
 Bernard Nathanson and ultrasound

A bloodhound’s sense of smell

Without a paradigm, “facts” cannot be brought into focus or into harmony
 Isolated bits of data need an organizing program to be usable
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Worldview: Why bother, if we have experience?

“A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument”
 What do you mean by experience ?
 What did you experience that event as ?
 Examples
 You narrowly avoid a traffic accident
 A sick person gets prayed for and then recovers
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Worldview: Why bother, if we have experience?
 Experience unsupported by some attempt at explanation lacks meaning
 Experience has transmission problems
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Worldviews: Biblical Bases
 Hebrews 6:1 – 3
 T herefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, [ 1 ] and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
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Worldviews: Biblical Bases
 Acts 18:24-28
 Acts 19:1-4
 Mark 4:34
 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
 Psalm 19
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Some Worldview Questions
 What is really real?
 Why is there something rather than nothing?
 What is human nature?
 What happens to a person after death?
 How do you determine right and wrong?
 Why is it possible to know anything at all?
 What is the meaning of history?
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Why Someone’s Worldview Changes
 Crisis occurs
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Why Someone’s Worldview Changes
 Denied doubt festers
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Why Someone’s Worldview Changes
 A moment of reflection followed by illumination takes place
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Augustine’s
 Born: 354 A.D.
 Died: 430 A.D.
 Home: Hippo,
Carthage (modern
Algeria)
 What Confessions is about
 His spiritual journey to
Christ
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Do We Need Orthodoxy or
 Definitions
Unanimity?
 Orthodoxy: Adhering to the established and traditional faith
 Unanimity: The state of being in total agreement with one another, on all points
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Orthodoxy vs. Heresy
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How a Worldview Makes a Difference
 9/11/2001: A handful of men fly jets into American buildings. Why?

“All supporters of Israel are legitimate targets.”

“We are at war with America.”

“Only an Islamic fundamentalist government is acceptable.”

“We will be in Paradise after this noble act.”
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How a Worldview Makes a Difference


Search the Koran
( http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/simple.html
)
[ 9.30
] And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of
Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!
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How a Worldview Makes a Difference

1.
Search the Koran
( http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/simple.html
)
[ 5.51
] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christian s for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 The Big Picture, Macroscopic
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 The Big Picture, Macroscopic
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 The Whole Tapestry
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 View from the mountaintop
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 Lacks definition
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Out of Focus / In Focus
Zoom view
 Microscopic
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Zoom view
 A view of the threads
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Zoom view
 A view from the valley of a single item on the ground
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Zoom view
 Detailed vision of one or of a few things
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Zoom view
 Lacks perspective
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Out of Focus / In Focus
 Panorama view
 The Big Picture, Macroscopic
 The Whole Tapestry
 View from the mountaintop
 Lacks definition
 Zoom view
 Microscopic
 A view of the threads
 A view from the valley of a single item on the ground
 Detailed vision of one or of a few things
 Lacks perspective
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Stairs of Abstraction
• To apply a truth, we must climb the stairs
Universal
More
General,
More
General,
Specific
&
Particular
“Them” or “That”
Less
Specific
Less
Specific
Specific
&
Particular
“Me” or
“This” 40

Necessary Conditions: Without these, it just won’t work
 Necessary conditions
 What are the necessary conditions for fire?
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Necessary Conditions: Without these, it just won’t work
 Necessary conditions
 What are necessary conditions for a car to run?
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Necessary Conditions: Without these, it just won’t work
 Necessary conditions
 What are the necessary conditions for election to the Presidency of the
United States?
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Ptolemy’s View of the Solar System
 Earth at the center
 Sun, moon, stars and planets revolving around
Earth
 Link to Ptolemaic System
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Copernicus’ View of the Solar System
 Sun at the center
 Earth and other planets revolving around sun
 Link to Copernican
System
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Mutually Exclusive Allegiances
 Example:
 Membership in the
Bahai faith, and membership in any other religious group
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Syncretism: A Mixture of Dissimilar

Elements
Oil and water
 Christianity and prostitution
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Syncretism: A Mixture of Dissimilar
Elements
 Night and day
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Syncretism: A Mixture of Dissimilar
Elements
 Exercise to re-enforce learning e= mc 2
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Which Map Should You Use?
 Where do you need to go?
 Has the location shifted?
 Who has gotten there before?
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Contradiction or Paradox?
“Rover is a dog. --Rover is not a dog.”
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
Contradiction or Paradox?
“Our genes determine what we are.

Our decisions determine what we are.”
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Contradiction or Paradox?
“Let’s go to the store. -- Let’s not go to the store.”
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Contradiction or Paradox?
“Jesus is a human. --Jesus is God.”
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 Objective
 Subjective
Validation
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Validation
Objective Subjective
The is out truth is there in here
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Smuggling in Beliefs from other
Systems
 Why is it done?
Insufficient support -
Can’t stand on its own two feet
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Smuggling in Beliefs from other
Systems
 An example – is like a philosophical pick-pocket
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Smuggling in Beliefs from other
 Exercise to re-enforce learning
Systems e= mc 2
Otra vez
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Gender Feminism

“Womyn is deified”

“Empowerment is the mantra”

“Unborn children are the blood sacrifices in the ritual of abortion”

“Men are the scapegoats for our sins.”
 Leviticus 16:10 – “But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.”
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Worldview Questions
 Your task is to put down in words your answers to the following questions.
 A.
What is prime reality – what is really real?
 B.
Why is there something rather than nothing?
 C.
What is a human being? How do you explain human nature?
 D.
What happens to a person at death?
 E.
How do you determine what is right and wrong?
 F.
Why is it possible to know anything at all?
 G.
What is the meaning of history?
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