The constant bombardment of anti-Christian messages by the news media, academia, and the music and entertainment industries entices people to mix elements of different worldviews into new, often incompatible, combinations–buffet style. Unfortunately, such experimentation can cause serious mental and emotional “indigestion” in the mind just as food poisoning can cause in the body. Both can even be fatal, spiritually or physically respectively.

Now, in PART TWO of this book, we will contrast and compare seven dominant worldviews with the Christian worldview. They are listed in a previous chapter, Worldviews in Conflict. The first three, Christian Theism, Deism and Polytheism, have a belief in one or more supernatural beings with the qualities of a person or persons. The last five depict the supernatural as either non-existent, unknowable, an impersonal force or as Satan himself. While the influence of any of these rivals cannot be underestimated, Materialism (the focus of this chapter) and New Age currently have the strongest impact on our nation.

Materialism is the belief that matter and material processes are the sole constituents of reality. It’s assumptions form the basis of an anti-God worldview that has many tentacles.* Materialism is the first worldview to be contrasted with Christianity because of its cancerous impact on American life and values. Indeed, it is an invasive and aggressive contradiction to America’s Christian heritage. Its proponents seek nothing less than to replace our foundational belief in the Supreme God of the Bible with belief in Man as supreme–the de facto belief of Secular Humanism. One says “In God we trust;” the other says “In Man we trust.” It is the introduction of the latter worldview that has ignited the current “culture war” which threatens America’s existence as a free God-fearing society.

*Atheism: disbelief in or denial of God’s existence (Merriam-Webster); a lack of belief in a Diety or deities: the opposite of Theism. It asserts the nonexistence of gods (Wikipedia).

Agnosticism or Non-theism: makes no claim about whether gods do or do not exist (Wikipedia).

*Humanism: a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason (Merriam-Webster).

*Naturalism: does not necessarily claim that phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled as supernatural do not exist or are wrong, but insists that all phenomena and hypotheses can be studied by the same methods. Anything considered supernatural is either nonexistent, unknowable or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses (Wikipedia).

Secular: temporal rather than spiritual (Merriam-Webster).

*Secularism: (1) asserts the freedom of religion, and freedom from religion, within a state that is neutral on matters of belief, and gives no state privileges or subsidies to religions; (2) refers to a belief that human activities and decisions should be based on evidence and fact, and not superstitious beliefs, however devoutly held, and that policy should be free from religious domination. For example, a society deciding whether to promote condom use might consider the issues of disease prevention, family planning, and women’s rights. A secularist would argue that such issues are relevant to public policy-making, whereas Biblical interpretation or church doctrine should not be considered and are irrelevant (Wikipedia).

Secular Humanism: combines Secularistic and Humanistic beliefs to assert the primacy of man and exclude the metaphysical (supernatural) realm. It is a worldview with the following elements and principles: (Wikipedia)

(1) Need to test beliefs–a conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith.

(2) Reason, evidence, scientific method–a commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions.

(3) Fulfillment, growth, creativity–a primary concern with fulfillment, growth, and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general.

(4) Search for truth–a constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it.

(5) This life – a concern for this life and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements and the outlooks of those who differ from us.

(6) Ethics – a search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility.

(7) Building a better world–a conviction that with reason, an open exchange of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children.

CHART 3 below provides a simplified overview in prose form that highlights the sharp contrast between the Christian Worldview and the Materialistic Worldview. (Please note: Chart numbers throughout Section 2 are sequential, beginning with the first chapter, Discovering Your Worldview.)

CHART 1 from a previous chapter, “Discovering Your Worldview,” posed questions designed to help you recognize your belief system. It is repeated below for your convenience and is followed by a new chart that demonstrates the differences between the Christian Worldview and the Materialistic Worldview. Compare your answers to CHART 1 questions with those in the new chart to see where your beliefs line up. The same process will be used to compare the New Age Worldview in a later chapter.

CHART 3
CHRISTIANITY		MATERIALISM
FAITH IN THE GOD OF THE BIBLE		FAITH IN THE PROCESS OF MACRO EVOLUTION **
The God of the Bible created everything and He called it good. God made man to know, love and belong to Him, to serve Him in obedient faith and to live for His glory and pleasure forever. All that God created is accountable to Him, including Mankind.		Man and all creation evolved from the accidental and random process of natural selection or punctuated equilibrium or something yet to be determined. As an animal, man must be free to follow his instincts and desires to become self-actualized. Since man is inherently good, he is his own moral Authority, accountable to no one.
Adam rejected God’s legitimate authority as his Creator and came under Satan’s dominion, causing the darkness of alienation from God, personal suffering, sin and death that now befalls everyone. Since all humans came from Adam, they are born also as fallen rebels by nature. Additionally, all creation has been “destroyed” by sin as compared to the original “good” condition of the Garden.		Mankind is evolving to eventual perfection. Suffering and death are part of the evolutionary process of the survival of the fittest. Mankind (not individuals) will triumph! Each person must be free to determine his own meaning and pursue his own happiness as he defines it. Anything preventing this is a social evil that must be remedied by the state. Since all beliefs and behaviors are equally valid, acceptance of all differences is only reasonable and fair.
God’s plan is to redeem mankind through rebirth by faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death and His atonement for all mankind’s sins. This grants true believers divine life that enables them to fulfill God’s purpose here and gives hope for endless fulfillment in Christ. Hell awaits all who reject God’s merciful offer and, thus, remain slaves of the Devil forever.		All notions of God, religion and after-life are restrictive and divisive and, therefore, must be removed by law for the sake of society’s mental health. Since there are no absolutes, the end justifies the means. Whatever is good for each person, according to his definition of good, is morally okay for him. Getting one’s needs met is the primary goal in life.
God offers you a way out. Put your trust and future in God’s hands so that Heaven will be your home! By God’s grace, believe and confess that Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord. Abide in Him for His glory and your good through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 10:9).		On the whole, the natural world is gradually improving because evolution is a fact. As for you, death is the end of your existence. So, everyone should just “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow, we die.” You have no ultimate purpose or future.

Obviously the contrast between these two worldviews is so enormous that both cannot be true. In order to highlight key differences, the next chapter will present a point by point analysis of these two worldviews by using the questions first posed in the previous chapter, Discovering Your Worldview, CHART 1. While you can choose either view for yourself, try solving the puzzle of which choice is safest and why.

** Macro Evolution refers to belief that lower species and kinds evolved into higher species and kinds over millions of years. For example, lower kinds of reptiles evolved into higher kinds of animals on the “evolutionary Tree”, including into man. However no necessary “transitional fossils” have ever been found to verify this model. For this model to be true, all creation would have had to come from NOTHING – a scientific impossibility. Only an uncaused Cause (God) could have created the Universe – including you and me.

Micro Evolution – mutations within kinds – is regularly observed when, for example, dogs are bred to produce new breeds of dogs (not changed into pigs or elephants.) There are many, many previous Macro evolutionists who now prove scientifically that Macro evolution is a total fallacy, used by the deceived to deceive others that there is no God. If you want information about what these young earth scientists are discovering, e-mail me from this site. LR