Who Has the Last Word in Your Worldview?

As some two billion Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday—the commemoration of Jesus Christ’s historical resurrection from the dead—it occurred to me that one way to think about one’s worldview is to look at it in terms of who or what has the last word.

Let’s very briefly examine who’s got the last word according to atheistic naturalism and Christian theism, two popular worldviews that vie for attention, especially in the Western world.

Top Five Abraham Lincoln Movies

Movies impact and shape our culture. They make us think. They communicate messages and worldviews, sometimes unintentionally. In light of the significance of film (and television), I along with RTB colleagues Krista Bontrager and Dave Rogstad spent time discussing how to approach movies “worldviewishly”—specifically from a Christian worldview—in a two-part podcast series entitled “How to Watch a Movie.”

Profound Problems with Religious Pluralism

Novelist Yann Martel’s book Life of Pi (now a major motion picture) embodies the popular notion that all religions are simultaneously true. The story’s young protagonist embraces aspects of multiple faiths (Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity), viewing these beliefs as equally valid but different paths to God. Unfortunately religious pluralism fails to appreciate the profound problems associated with it.

Straight Thinking Highlight: D’Souza’s Film on Obama

Does everyone have a worldview? What critical factors shape a person’s worldview compass? How important is it to correctly discern the worldview held by major influencers, such as our political leaders?

With the Presidential campaign well under way, I thought it would be a good time to revisit a recent edition of my podcast, Straight Thinking. In episode #187 I discuss the provocative documentary 2016: Obama’s America by political commentator and Christian apologist Dinesh D’Souza. My intent is not to discuss the political issues, per se, or tell people who to vote for, but rather to evaluate the important questions in the film that relate to worldview thinking.

Give the program a listen—it’s sure to make you think!

• “Worldview Thinking in D’Souza’s Movie on Obama”

Ronald Nash (1936–2006): A Vibrant Worldview

Dr. Ronald H. Nash died five years ago on March 10, 2006 after a long illness. A professor, author, and churchman, his impact has been wide and deep, and his legacy endures. I wrote this tribute to him in 2006.

Is America Really the “Great Satan”?

I wrote this article just a few days after 9/11 (though it had to wait until the first quarter of 2002 to be published in the RTB magazine Facts for Faith). As this month marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this piece.

What in the World Is a Worldview?

Everybody has one. Whether they’re educated or uneducated, liberal or conservative, rich or poor, nonbelieving or God-fearing, all people act and live according to their particular worldview. Given its prevalence, it might be helpful to explain what exactly a worldview is.

Captain America and Superhero Worldviews, Part 2

I was somewhat reticent to see the newest superhero movie Captain America: The First Avenger (released July 22, 2011). Why? Because Captain America was my favorite superhero as a kid and it seems that few contemporary remakes do justice to one’s childhood memories.

Captain America and Superhero Worldviews, Part 1

In elementary school I was known in class as Kenny Samples, a quiet and mild-mannered child. But during recess I transformed into my alter ego: Marvel comics superhero Captain America. On the playground of Carver Elementary School I battled daily my archnemesis The Red Skull (believed to be Adolf Hitler’s alter ego).

With my “mighty shield” (Captain America’s most powerful weapon), I vanquished the Nazi forces that threatened freedom and democracy. When the forces of Axis evil congregated against me, I called upon my childhood friends Peter Falcioni (a.k.a. Thor) and Paul Goff (a.k.a. Iron Man) to help me win the climactic battle.  (My mother always commented that for a reserved child I had a powerful imagination!)

My father’s participation in World War II as a combat soldier clearly influenced my childhood attachment to Captain America, a WWII era superhero. I’ll never forget as a child seeing the three medals my father received for his service in the bloodiest war in human history. In fact, as a kid I viewed my dad as a real-life Captain America.

Looking back I realize that reading Captain America comic books helped inculcate in me a type of worldview thinking. As a child, my coalescing world-and-life view was more profoundly influenced by my family’s commitment to Catholic Christianity and by our family’s deep respect for what thinker Dennis Prager calls “the trinity of American values” as expressed on American currency: Liberty, E Pluribus Unum (“out of many, one”), and In God We Trust. And the fictional Captain America embodied all those values in a super-human way.

Superheroes and Ethics
In exploring the moral dimension of life, philosophers discuss what is known as “The Five Problems of Ethics.” These powerful interrogatives seek to unveil that which anchors life’s deepest ethical commitments. For what is good (ethics) cannot exist in a metaphysical (relating to reality) and epistemological (relating to truth) vacuum. One’s view of appropriate human conduct has a lot to do with what one thinks about reality and truth. In other words, one’s ethical views are greatly impacted by one’s broader and more comprehensive worldview.

The Five Problems of Ethics:

1. What characterizes human nature?
2. What is the greatest good?
3. How is the greatest good known?
4. What motivates and restrains moral choices?
5. Do human beings possess the freedom of the will?

In part 2 of this series, I will attempt to provide answers drawn from the newest superhero movie, Captain America: The First Avenger (released July 22, 2011). And we’ll see how the latest big-screen version of Captain America corresponds with how I fondly remember him from childhood.

Resources:
For more on how comic book superheroes are understood in light of Christian worldview thinking, see The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture written by my friend and former Christian Research Institute colleague B. J. Oropeza.

For more on Christian worldview analysis, see my book A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test.

Quote of the Week: Cornelius Plantinga

“This [Christian worldview] vision derives from Scripture, centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and grows rich from the contributions of ecumenical creeds, church confessions, and the thinking of such heavyweight theologians as Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and Barth.”

—Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God’s World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), xv–xvi.