UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
UNDERSTANDING WORLDVIEWS
CHAPTER FOUR
HOW TO EXAMINE WORLDVIEWS
1ST Key WV Analysis Questions on
origin
• Who are we and Where did we
come from? (Origin)
• Where did everything come
from?
• How did everything come to
be?
WHO ARE WE ACCORDING TO
HINDU
• Ignorance makes people ask the
question of origin
• The material world is maya (an illusion)
• Brahman is the only ultimate reality
• Thus the material world is a reflection
on Brahman
WHO ARE WE ACCORDING TO BUDDHISM
• Buddha discourages followers from speculating about the origin
• Suffering as a problem is the only thing that requires solution
but not the origin of the world.
• Three main beliefs of Buddhism:
1. Everything in life is impermanent and always changing.
2. Bse nothing is permanent, a life based on possessing things or
persons doesn’t make you happy.
3. There is no eternal, unchanging soul and self is just a collection
of changing characteristics or attributes.
Father: Suddhodana, Mother : Maya, Son: Siddhartha Gautama.
CHINESE WORLDVIEW
• It consists Confucianism, Budhism and
Taoism traditions.
• Taoism bases the origin on yin and yang
• Taoism describes the ultimate force behind
creation.
• With Tao nothingness gave rise to existence,
but existence gave rise to yin and yang and
yin and yang gave rise to everything.
• Male forces are defined as yang,
symbolized by the sun and
female forces are symbolized by
the moon.
• To keep heaven running
smoothly, the king in ancient
China had a job of maintaining
balance between the sun and
moon.
• Another version…… In the
beginning there was a huge egg
containing chaos and a mixture of
yin and yang (female-male, cold-
heat, dark-light, wet-dry.
• With in yin and yang was Phan ku
who broke forth from the egg as a
giant who separated yin and yang
into many opposites(earth and sky)
• Some claim that at 18000
years Phan-ku died, his body
forming the various parts of
earth and the parasites on his
body forming humans.
• With a great chisel and
huge hummer, PHAN KU
curved out mountains,
rivers, valleys and oceans.
• He also made the sun,
moon, and stars.
• When he died after 18000
years, it is said that the fleas
in his hair became human
beings.
• Everything is PHAN KU
and everything that Phan ku
is YIN-YANG.
• Confucius said heaven
and the afterlife are
beyond human
capacity to understand.
•
THE FIVE PRINCIPLE
RELATIONSHIPS
• Husband & wife
• Government & citizen
• Parent & Child
• Old & young siblingFriend
& Friend
• One should therefore
concentrate instead on
doing the right thing in
this life.
• Confucianism deals with
behavior and morality
• Confucianism aspires
for social harmony.
• Confucian ethics have
had the strongest
influence on moral
fabric of Chinese
society.
AFRICAN TRADITIONAL
WORLDVIEW
• A Supreme God is the creator of
the universe and man.
• A relationship between the
physical and spiritual world.
• Man and nature depend on each
other.A balance of nature brings
harmony in the community
ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW
• Its based on Quran teachings
• Allah is the creator of
everything in the universe.
• All people are born Muslems
and should submit to Allah.
NATURALISTIC WORLDVIEW
• Everything in the universe
can be known or explained
through nature.
Everything arises from
natural properties and
causes
• The universe is a closed
system not open to any
interference from
outside forces.
Naturalism worldview
• Naturalism: Concepts you need
to know…
• 1 Big Bang
• 2 Anthropic Principle
• 3 Evolution*
• 4 Emergence*
THE BIG BANG THEORY
• The universe begun as a tiny
point which grew larger and
when it was fully expanded it
exploded.
• The something which caused
it to expand is not known.
THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE
• It states that the entire universe
and most particularly the planet
earth appears to be precisely
fine-tuned in such away as to
allow for and even promote the
emergence of intelligent human
life.
Evolution
is a theory which states that
through gradual changes over
millions and millions of years,
simple organisms (forms of life)
change or evolve into more and
more complex organisms.
These changes, starting from
the simplest one celled
creature, have culminated in
the most recent and most
complex stage of evolution:
homo sapiens, modern human
beings.
• Evolution developed from the theories
of Charles Darwin in his work, “The
Origin of Species”, which proposed the
mechanism by which changes might
occur from one species to another.
• This mechanism was known as natural
selection.
• In nature, the strong survive and
predators or disease kills the weakest.
If any tiny difference in composition
gives one
Emergence
It states that when enough small
evolutionary changes take place in
an organism, a certain critical
juncture is reached at which point a
new characteristic “emerges” which
cannot be explained merely as a
combination or addition of the small
changes.
.
Emergence attempts to cover some of
the more difficult gaps in the theory of
evolution.
there are several giant leaps which
cannot be accounted for even by
macro-evolutionary changes.
Emergence has little scientific
evidence to uphold it.
The Human mind
• Evolution is not sufficient to explain this
development since evolution involves only
small, gradual changes and yet abstract thought
is qualitatively different from the mere
intelligence.
• The brains are complex and are interconnected to
every part of the body.
• The brain has a right side and left side.
• It is deals with reasoning and thinking.
MAJOR “LEAPS” IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
1) The leap from nothing to something.
(The Big Bang does not account for its
own origin).
2) The leap from non-life to life. How did
inorganic material suddenly become
‘alive’?
3) The leap from non-conscious life to
consciousness (i.e. plants to animals).
4) The leap from conscious life to
intelligent life. (animal awareness to
human intelligence and abstract
reasoning ability)
5) The leap from self-consciousness to
God-consciousness (a spirit). Where
did this come from?
6) The leap from??? To morality, human
conscience, ethical behavior.
Factors in Evolutionary theory
1) Time 2) Relationship
The universe is said to be 13.7 billion
years old
The earth was formed 4.5 billion years
ago
The simplest life on earth (single cells)
began about 3.5 billion years ago
Dinosaurs existed between 250-65
million years ago
Hominids (human like creatures) walked the earth
from 6 million to 100 thousand years ago.
Homo sapiens (modern humans) have lived from
about 150,000 years ago.
But…the biblical view seems to suggest that
Abraham lived only 4,000 years ago; and Adam
(as well as the whole initial creation) lived only
about 2,000 years prior to that, according to the
Genesis genealogies. In other words, a 6,000
year old world.
The homo sapiens development
2) Relationships between all living things
• Biologists and zoologists have shown
that all living things are related to one
another.
• There are commonalities between the plant
and animal kingdoms, more between all
living creatures, and especially there are
commonalities between creatures of closely
related time periods and species.
How does one explain the enormous lengths
of time and the relatedness of all living
things?
The Christian worldview seemed at a loss. If
‘creation’ was a 7 day event a few thousand
years ago, how could bones and fossils be
discovered which gave evidence of being
millions of years old and of gradually giving
way to successively more and more complex
forms of life? The facts seemed to support
the naturalistic view of evolution, and to
conflict with Christianity.
CREATION AND THE IMAGE OF GOD
What does the Bible say about our origin as
humans?
• The response you get from any worldview
about this question will determine the
value you put to life and more specifically
human life.
• Martin Luther said, “ God writes the
gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on
trees, flowers, clouds and stars.”
What is revelation?
•Revelation is both God’s WORD and God’s WORLD
•God’s word spoken
•God’s word written
•God’s word living
•God’s world
•What is true life according to the CWV?
•What is death?
•Once dead, is there still hope of life?
•What is the relationship between life, death, and the Image
of God?
Imprints of the Imago Dei
• Man has a spirit • God is Spirit
• Man exists in relationship • God exists in relationship
(trinitarian)
• Man is a unity of self • God is a unity in plurality
(body, soul, spirit) (3 persons, 1 being)
• Man is a free moral agent • God has absolute freedom
• Man was created good • God is GOOD
• Man is given authority • God is Sovereign
• Man has creative ability • God is the Creator
(and reasoning)
REFLECTING THE IMAGO
DEI
• Relationship with God is
possible.
• Relationship with others
• Relationship with creation
Human = Body, Soul, Spirit
• Body • Physical, Chemical,
(shared with plants and Biological systems; the
animals) place of interaction with
the physical world
• Soul • Mind, Will (volition), and
The “person” or personality. Emotions; the place of
Self awareness. Animals interaction between self
also share these traits and others
• Spirit • Conscience, Intuition,
Unique to human beings Discernment, Prayer;
interaction with God
Awareness of God
The Image of God corrupted
• Man has a spirit • Our spirit is “dead”
• Man exists in relationship • Relational problems:
divorce, abuse, social
• Man is a unity of self • Internal disharmony:
(body, soul, spirit) psych problems,
• Man is a free moral agent addiction
• Abuse of freedoms: self-
• Man was created good seeking, wrong choices
• Born with sinful nature
• Man is given authority
• Abuse of environment
• Man has creative ability
(and reasoning) • Mankind is destructive
(kills, steals, destroys, wars)
Restoring the Image
• The “image” of God in us is corrupted,
marred, defaced, due to SIN (destroyed?)
• What is corrupt gives birth to what is
corrupt. We are born with a sinful nature.
• There is NOTHING we can do about it
• Jesus restores the image by:
1. Forgiveness (cleansing, purifying)
2. Clothing us with his righteousness
The Value of Human Life
Who are we and where do we come from?
What does it mean to be human?
Of what value am I? To whom?
The Naturalist Response
“In a sense, people are worthless. There’s
no point to them. There’s no purpose in
people, people are just things that just
happen to have emerged from slime, sort of
‘dragged themselves up by their own
bootstraps’; and currently they’re having a
whale of a time. Good for people. I think its
wonderful that there are people in the
universe and I’m glad that I’m one of them,
but there isn’t any purpose to them;
they just happened to have got there through
a process of natural selection and it’s
wonderful that they're equipped with brains
that can take delight from understanding the
world – or even delight from just being in the
world – but beyond that, they’re just…
nothing.”
- Dr. Peter Atkins, Oxford biologist
• According to Christian Worldview,
creation glorifies God simply by being
exactly what God intended it to be..
Human Value?
• What happens when the value of human
life is not connected with the Image of
God?
• Abortion
• Euthanasia
• Suicide
• Indiscriminate killing (suicide bombers)