A great Civil War of Values is raging today throughout North America. To be more precise, it is a battle between worldviews. On one side is the Christian worldview. On the other is the Humanist worldview divided into three easily definable branches: Secular Humanism, Marxism/Leninism, and Cosmic Humanism (the New Age movement). While the latter three don’t agree in every detail, there is one point on which they unanimously concur—their opposition to Biblical Christianity.
“Nothing short of a great Civil War of Values rages today throughout North America,” say James Dobson and Gary Bauer. “Two sides with vastly differing and incompatible worldviews are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society.”1
This book is an in-depth account of this “Second Great Civil War”—an account of the war for our children and grandchildren. The war, as Dobson and Bauer put it, is a struggle “for the hearts and minds of people. It is a war over ideas.”2
While the latter three don’t agree in every detail, there is one point on which they unanimously concur—their opposition to Biblical Christianity.
To be more precise, it is a battle between worldviews. On one side is the Christian worldview. On the other is the Humanist worldview divided into three easily definable branches: Secular Humanism, Marxism/Leninism, and Cosmic Humanism (the New Age movement). While the latter three don’t agree in every detail, there is one point on which they unanimously concur—their opposition to Biblical Christianity. It is in this context that we will seek to understand all three while presenting a strong, honest, truthful, intelligent defense of the Biblical Christian worldview.
“Someday soon,” Dobson and Bauer say, “a winner (in the battle for our children’s hearts and minds) will emerge and the loser will fade from memory. For now, the outcome is very much in doubt.”3 In order to emerge victorious, Christians must quickly arrive at an understanding of the times and “know what they ought to do.” (1 Chronicles 12:32).
The Heart of a Worldview
1. The term worldview refers to any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement, or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world, and man’s relations to God and the world. Specifically, a worldview should contain a particular perspective regarding each of the following ten disciplines: theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, and history.
2. If Biblical Christianity contains a specific attitude toward all ten disciplines it is, by our definition, a worldview. And, since it contains a theology, it is by implication a religious worldview.
3. Secular Humanism and Marxism/Leninism are also religious, as this study will show. Both have theologies. There is a Secular Humanist theology; there is a Marxist/Leninist theology. Further, both are worldviews, because they speak directly to each of the other nine disciplines. The New Age movement (Cosmic Humanism) is a less tightly-organized worldview.
4. Each worldview offers a particular perspective from which to approach each discipline. Conversely, each discipline is value-laden with worldview implications. Christian students must understand that these various disciplines are not value-free. Each discipline demands basic assumptions about the nature of reality in order to grant meaning to specific approaches to it.
This text analyzes the four worldviews’ perspectives on each of the ten disciplines, but it does so without losing sight of how each system of thought integrates its various presuppositions, categories, and conclusions. We are not out to “over-analyze.” Rather, we are attempting to understand each discipline and how it fits into each worldview. Dissecting is artificial; integration is the real world. No discipline stands alone. Each affects all others in one way or another. The line separating theology and philosophy is fragile; the line separating theology, philosophy, ethics, law, and politics is more so. In fact, there is no ultimate line, only a difference in emphasis and perspective.
Thus, the arrangement of the categories is, to some degree, arbitrary; but we have tried to place them in their most logical sequence. It is clear that theological and philosophical assumptions color every aspect of one’s worldview and that disciplines such as sociology and psychology are related; but other relations and distinctions are less recognizable. Therefore, one reader may feel that we have done law an injustice by distancing it from ethics, and another may feel history to be almost as foundational to a worldview as philosophy. There is no correct order according to which these chapters must be read. Our format is a logical suggestion; it is not binding. Readers are encouraged to adhere to any study method or outline with which they feel comfortable.
5. Regardless of the approach you choose, keep in mind that you are studying the four worldviews that exert the most influence over Western man. Other worldviews exist, but they wield much less power; Confucianism, for example, may profoundly influence some Eastern countries, but hardly phases the West. The major ideas of the West are contained in the following four worldviews.
Dr. Noebel, president of Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, Colorado, has been involved in training students in Christian apologetics for more than 30 years. This article comes from his book Understanding the Times. This is the first in a series of 17 articles.
