Lecture 1 – The Nature and Necessity of Belief

Differing opinions on looking at nature? Why?

The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering
something new and saying to myself, 'So that's how God did it.' My goal is to understand a
little corner of God's plan. (Henry Schaefer)

Well, if you ask…about that, then you see remarkable things like that earwig and you also see
all very beautiful things like hummingbirds, orchids, and so on. But you also ought to think of
the other, less attractive things. You ought to think of tapeworms. You ought to think of…well,
think of a parasitic worm that lives only in the eyeballs of human beings, boring its way
through them, in West Africa, for example, where it's common, turning people blind. So if you
say, "I believe that God designed and created and brought into existence every single species
that exists," then you've also got to say, "Well, he, at some stage, decided to bring into
existence a worm that's going to turn people blind." Now, I find that very difficult to reconcile
with notions about a merciful God. And I certainly find it difficult to believe that a God —
superhuman, supreme power — would actually do that. (David Attenborough)

Let’s take another example:

The question of euthanasia – who is right?

The question of how we should raise children?

 What lies behind the opinions we have on things in this world?

Why do we think that thing is right, but another thing is wrong?

Why are we passionate that kids should be raised this way?

What drives all of our thinking?

Worldview = the “grid” or the “framework” through which we view all of life.

• the foundational beliefs behind your beliefs.

The example - Talking about sex

• the real conversation happens when you ask this question – why do you hold that
opinon?

o what do you think sex is for?

o What do think a human being is?

o Why talking about sex can lead to talking about God.

I still don’t think I have a worldview

1. We don’t recognise our worldview because we’ve only ever looked through it rather
than at it.

2. We didn’t construct our own worldview – we inherited it or “breathed it in” from our
surrounding culture.
Part of being fully human is for you to understand your own worldview, to know why it is
yours, and why in light of so many other options, you think yours is true.

The first big reason for this course: “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Socrates).

We ought to have much more time, more leisure, than our ancestors did, because technology,
which is the most obvious and radical difference between their lives and ours, is essentially a
series of time-saving devices.

In ancient societies, if you were rich you had slaves to do the menial work so that you could
be freed to enjoy your leisure time. Life was like a vacation for the rich because the poor
slaves were their machines. . . .

[But] now that everyone has slave-substitutes (machines), why doesn’t everyone enjoy the
leisurely, vacationy lifestyle of the ancient rich? Why have we killed time instead of saving it?
...

We want to complexify our lives. We don’t have to, we want to. We wanted to be harried and
hassled and busy. Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had
leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gaping hold in
our hearts and be terrified, because that hole is so big that nothing but God can fill it.

So we run around like conscientious little bugs, scared rabbits, dancing attendance on our
machines, our slaves, and making them our masters. We think we want peace and silence and
freedom and leisure, but deep down we know that this would be unendurable to us, like a
dark and empty room without distractions where we would be forced to confront ourselves. .
(Peter Kreeft)

I’m not interested in making you a philosopher, I just want you to be fully alive.
1. If you are a Christian.....

Adult Christians with teenage faith

“People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why
they believe as they do will find themselves defenceless against either the experience of
tragedy or the probing questions of a smart sceptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost
overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should
only be discarded after long reflection” (Tim Keller, Reason for God, p.xvii).

2. If you are not a Christian....

“But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, sceptics must learn
to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however sceptical and
cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except
from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because “There
can’t be just one true religion”, you must recognise that this statement is itself an act of faith.
No one can prove it empirically, and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts….The
only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternative belief under
each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do
you know your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for
Christian belief than you do for your own…” (Tim Keller, Reason for God, p.xvii)

The second big reason for this course – exploring how the Christian worldview changes
everything.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but
because by it I see everything else (C.S. Lewis)
There is not a single part of reality that God is uninterested in – he made it, he owns, he has a
design for it all. Learning why everything matters to God.

Christians who have boxed God up into their Sunday, but never quite worked out where God
exists on Monday.

A Final Focus on the Specifics of Worldview – and the Assignment

A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed

as a story or in a set of presuppositions about the basic constitution of reality, and that
provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being. (James W. Sire)

A worldview is a commitment.

Expressed in a story or propositions.

The foundation on which we live and move and have our being.

Seven Basic Worldview Questions

1. What is prime reality – the really real?

• Behind everything is there a God

• Behind everything there is gods

• Carl Sagan - The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be

2. What is the nature of the external world around us?

• Designed and fashioned by a personal Creator

• Designed and fashioned by an impersonal Creator

 • A random chaotic mess

• Is the world basically physical, basically spiritual, or a combination of the two

3. What is a human being?

• Highly evolved mammal (“naked ape”)

• A person made in the image of God

• A godlike spirit trapped in a body

4. What happens to a person at death?

• Extinction

• Reincarnation

• Immortality of the soul, but not the body

• Resurrection of the body

5. How do we know what is right and wrong?

• God sets the standards

• We can work out with our reason what is the right thing to do

• Feelings/intuition

• Morality is a cultural construct in which we agree to certain behaviours in order to

survive

6. What is wrong with the world?

• Sin

• Evil exists because of a lack of education – if people knew more, they’d do better

• There is nothing wrong with the world

• What do you expect in a world of survival of the fittest?

7. What is the solution to our problems?

• More education

• Getting saved in a religion

• Learning to cope – there is no solution

• The spread of democracy.