Worldview
What is it? Wikepedia describes it as;
A comprehensive
worldview is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or
society encompassing natural philosophy, fundamental existential and normative
postulates or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. The term is a calque of
German Weltanschauung composed of Welt, 'world', and
Anschauung, 'view' or 'outlook'. It is a concept fundamental to German
philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide
world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and
beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it.
Epistemology
Epistemology
is one of the core areas of philosophy. It is concerned with the nature, sources
and limits of knowledge. Epistemology has been primarily concerned with
propositional knowledge, that is, knowledge that such-and-such is true, rather
than other forms of knowledge, for example, knowledge how to such-and-such.
There is a vast array of views about propositional knowledge, but one virtually
universal presupposition is that knowledge is true belief, but
not mere true belief For example; lucky guesses or true beliefs resulting from
wishful thinking are not knowledge. Thus, a central question in epistemology
is: what must be added to true beliefs to convert them into knowledge? Answer: God’s Word
Excerpt
taken from one of many on the WWW.
There
is no word in the English language that adequately conveys the meaning of secular
humanism. Secular humanism is not a religion; it represents a
philosophical, scientific, and ethical outlook. (A contradiction in terms) I have
accordingly introduced a new term, eupraxsophy,
in order to distinguish humanistic convictions and practices from religious systems
of faith and belief. This term can be used in many languages. It is
derived from Greek roots: eu-, praxis, and sophia.
Here is just one example of a person attempting to lead
others down the dangerous path to Perdition. One man who thinks he can introduce
a new term to the English language.
But then, inarticulate,
and clumsy new words have made it into the Oxford dictionary.
The
Biblical and Christian vision of man as God's image and likeness is radically
opposed to the relativism of ancient Greek sophists, notably Protagoras,
according to whom 'man is the measure of all things'. Protagoras is
known for his belief that nothing is exclusively good or bad, true or false:
what is true for one person can be false for another, and vice versa. There is
therefore no general or objective truth, and there is no higher criterion of
truth than the human person: each individual is the standard of what is true to
himself. This vision sends religion to the backyards of human existence,
makes it irrelevant and unnecessary. Indeed, Protagoras is reported to
have said: 'Respecting the gods, I am unable to know whether they exist or do
not exist.' In other words, it does not really matter, whether there are gods
or not, as long as man himself is the measure of all things. (See Philosphers) Plato
List of Greek Gods
There
is a very long list of Greek gods and goddesses, according to Greek mythology.
The Greek stories about the gods and goddesses have been translated into English
and other languages and in doing so; some of the stories do not coincide with
each other. How the story goes depends on who translated the story, Most of the
stories follow about the same path but others were very different. Some of the
gods were born of different mothers or fathers, depending on who translated the
genealogy of the Greek gods and goddesses. One can only decide for themselves
which story they want to believe is the right one. http://www.allgreekgods.com/List_of_Greek_Gods.htm
The omnipotence of God means this: God is all (omni)
powerful (potent). He has chosen to keep this attribute exclusively to Himself
and therefore the word itself is true only of God and Him alone. His power is
not like ours; it doesn’t decrease or run low, it is at its optimum at all
times. We tire and require rest to recuperate, but God is never in need of
respite and His power remains un-relinquished.
The radical
discrepancy between anthropocentric and theocentric
visions can be perceived throughout human history, but it seems to me that we
are living in the epoch when this discrepancy is being expressed more acutely
than it ever was. In contemporary Europe, for instance, the anthropocentric vision
takes the form of militant secularism, which actively opposes any
manifestations of religiosity. The conflict between secularism and religion was
reflected in the battle against reference to God in the European Constitution,
the battle that was lost by the churches and won by secularists. The same
conflict can be perceived in the debates following the French government's
prohibition against wearing religious symbols in public places. In both
cases militant secularism surfaces as the only legitimate worldview upon which
the new world order should be built both in Europe and beyond.
Anthropocentric.
http://www.godsplan.org.uk/rebellionofsatan.htm
Regarding
humans as the central element of the universe.
Interpreting
reality exclusively in terms of human values and experience.
Theocentric.
http://www.godsplan.org.uk/genesis2.htm
Theocentricism
is the belief that God is the central aspect to our existence, as opposed to,
for instance, anthropocentrism or existentialism.
Protagoras was also renowned as a teacher who addressed
subjects connected to virtue and political life. He was especially involved in
the question of whether virtue could be taught, a commonplace issue of 5th
Century BC Greece (and related to modern readers through Plato's dialogue).
Rather than educators who offered specific, practical training in rhetoric or
public speaking, Protagoras attempted to formulate a reasoned understanding, on
a very general level, of a wide range of human phenomena (for example, language
and education). He also seems to have had an interest in orthoepeia, or
the correct use of words (a topic more strongly associated with his
fellow-sophist Prodicus).
His most famous saying is: "Man is the measure of
all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not,
that they are not". Like many fragments of the Presocratics, this
phrase has been passed down to us without any context, and its meaning is open
to interpretation. Plato ascribes relativism to Protagoras and uses his
predecessor's teachings as a foil for his own commitment to objective and
transcendent realities and values. Plato also ascribes to Protagoras an early
form of phenomenalism, in which what is or appears
for a single individual is true or real for that individual.
Protagoras was a proponent of agnosticism.
Agnosticism
Is the view that the truth-value of certain
claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but
also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable. Agnosticism can be defined in various ways, and is sometimes
used to indicate doubt or a skeptical approach to questions. In some senses,
agnosticism is a stance about the similarities or differences between belief
and knowledge, rather than about any specific claim or belief.
Thomas Henry Huxley, an English biologist, coined the
word agnostic in 1860. However, earlier thinkers and written works have
promoted agnostic points of view. They include Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE
Greek philosopher, and the Nasadiya Sukta creation myth in the Rig Veda, an
ancient Hindu religious text. Since Huxley coined the term, many other thinkers
have written extensively about agnosticism. In his lost work, On the Gods,
he wrote: "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they
exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the
subject, and the brevity of human life. (brief; shortness of
time).
Greek mythology is
the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their
gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of
their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient
Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to
throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its
civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. Some theologists speculate that the Ancient
Greeks created myths to explain nearly everything so that - so to speak - no
loose ends remained.
Atheism.
The percentage of atheists and other non-believers in European
Union member states ranges as low as single digits in Poland, Romania, Cyprus
and some other countries, and up to 85% in Sweden, 80% in Denmark, and 60% in
Finland. Atheists tend to lean towards skepticism regarding supernatural
claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence.[citation needed] Atheists have
offered several rationales for not believing in any deity. These include;
·
the problem of evil,
·
the argument from inconsistent revelations,
·
and the argument from nonbelief.
Other arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to the social to
the historical. Although some atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as
humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of
behaviors to which all atheists adhere.
To
proclaim man as the measure of all things, to exclude God from the public
domain, to expel religion from society and relegate it exclusively to the
private sphere – this is the programme that the representatives of modern
liberal humanism attempt to implement. This programme is inspired both by the
notions inherited from the ancient Greek humanism and by the ideas of the
Enlightenment with their peculiar notions of freedom and tolerance. According
to this programme, tolerance of religion should be practised only insofar as it
neither violates the dictates of political correctness nor contradicts
so-called 'common human values.' Everything that transgresses these
boundaries must be limited, forbidden or entirely eliminated.
And they have the audacity to say Christianity is intolerant.
The
categorical refusal of a significant number of European politicians to
mention Christianity in the European Constitution and the decisive
resistance of the majority of French social activists to all visible manifestations
of faith, together with other, similar phenomena throughout many areas of
Europe, form but the tip of the iceberg. Behind these actions we can
discern the consistent, systematic and well-targeted onslaught of militant
secularism on what remains of European Christian civilization, along with the
desire to obliterate it once and for all. This attack is being carried
out to the drumbeat of the proponents of democracy and liberal values and with
loud cries over the defence of civil rights and freedoms. But this assault
on religion also entails that the cardinal right of a human person to confess
openly his faith in God, is placed under question. It also threatens the
freedom of human communities to base their mode of existence on their religious
worldviews.
Hypocrits.
Militant secularism,
quickly gaining in numbers in modern Europe, is also a pseudo-religion with its
own solid doctrinal tenets and moral norms, its own cult and symbols. As
with 20th-century Russian communism, it also lays claims to a monopoly
on worldviews and remains intolerant of competition. This is why leaders
of contemporary secularism react uncomfortably to religious symbols and wince
when God is mentioned. Voltaire used to say: 'If there is no God, one would have to think him up',
stressing the significance of religious faith for the moral health of the
individual and of society. Today's liberal humanists, however, insist that 'if
there is a God, he must be passed over in silence', believing that
there is no place for God in the public domain. For them, to mention God in
documents of public significance, or to wear religious symbols in public
places, violates the rights of unbelievers and agnostics. They forget, however,
that the ban on mentioning God and wearing religious symbols
discriminates equally against believers, who are refused the right to openly
express their religious convictions.
Wheat and Tares. Matt 13:24-30 KJV
Militant Secularism and Christianity
1. Why
is the prevailing attitude of liberal secularists so hostile toward
Christianity?
2. Why
does political correctness, whose mores, invented and established by them as
the infallible 'moral code of the builders of a New Europe', eschews criticism
of Islam but positively, encourage denigration of Christianity?
3. Why
do we regularly hear of the atrocities of the Inquisition in medieval Spain and
the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, but never of the genocide of Armenians or of
other Christian peoples in Turkey?
4. Why
such prejudice and one-sidedness in the telling of history?
5. Why
is Christianity the scapegoat whenever religion is to be made accountable?
6. Why
the intentional exclusion of Christianity from the European Constitution, while
the 'Greco-Roman legacy' and the heritage of the Enlightenment were singled out
in the project of the Constitution as the foundational elements of European
civilization?
7. What
do we mean by 'Christian values' and how do they differ from the so-called
'common human values' that form the basis of secular humanism?
First of all, as I noted
in the beginning of my lecture, the Christian system of values is theocentric
and christocentric. Christianity confirms that its supreme and absolute value,
its central criterion of truth, is the one God who has revealed himself to the
world in Jesus Christ. For Christians, it is God who is regarded as the
source of legal and social norms, and Christ's commandments constitute
an immutable moral law.
God’s word is the truth.
God can keep the stars in there
courses, keep the planets in the orbit, keep the heavens up above and preserves
everything in the whole universe, If He can do that surely He can keep you. And
if God Has saved you, He will keep you. He who started a good work will be
faithful to complete it.
Revelation 19:6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying,
alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
By
comparison, secular humanism is anthropocentric, since it regards
human person as the ‘measure of all things’, as the absolute value and
yardstick of truth. Christianity proceeds from the idea that human nature,
damaged by sin, requires correction, redemption and deification. This is why
the Church ‘cannot favour a world order that puts in the centre of everything
the human personality darkened by sin. Humanism, however, negates the very
idea of sin. For it, like for ancient Greek sophistry, nothing is
exclusively good or bad, virtuous or sinful: what is sin for one person can be
virtue for another, and vice versa. The freedom of an individual is regarded as
a universal value, and the only things that limit an individual’s freedom are
legal norms that protect the liberty of other individuals, and political
correctness.
The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can
bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct,
and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve . . . . As holiness
is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and
action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the
eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power His
mercy would be but feeble pity, His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a
mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal,
incomprehensible, it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the
creature.
People
for whom religious values are decisive are not only to be found in Cýte d'Ivoire
and Russia. There are, of course, a good number of such people in Western
Europe as well. According to sociological surveys, 60 to 95 per cent of the
population in the majority of western European countries still regard
themselves as Christians. However, the number of practising Christians is
steadily declining. Militant secularism uses all possible means to make
Christianity seem outdated, to project it as a 'relic of the past' so that a
way may be paved for more 'progressive' philosophies. (Self indulgence) Active work in this direction is being
carried out with young people: modern youth culture, inspired by secular ideas,
is becoming increasingly hostile toward the Church and Christianity. It
is therefore not without reason that sociologists predict a significant decline
in the number of European Christians in one or two generations (with a
simultaneous, continuous increase in the number of Muslims).
There is not enough time left for one or two generations to
pass. Time is fast running out for all, to decide for themselves the truth, and
in which direction it will take them.
As stated earlier,
militant secularism, in its efforts to diminish the influence of religion, has
been inspired first and foremost by an anti-Catholic pathos. The Catholic Church,
in turn, is the chief opponent of secularism and liberalism in Europe today. A
significant number of Protestants, however, also live on the European
continent, as do no less than 200 million Orthodox. It is most unfortunate
that the response of many European Protestants to the problem of secularism has
been a gradual break with the fundamental theological and moral norms of
Christianity, the erosion of doctrinal and moral principles, and
adaptation to the secular worldview.
·
What will be the Orthodox Church's
reaction to this challenge?
·
Who are our main allies in the struggle
for the right to lead one's life based on the priority of traditional over
'common human' values?
Unfortunately, there
are European politicians who are attempting to destroy the traditional,
churchly way of life because this is precisely how they view the function of
the secular state – to divorce the Church from the social arena. It is this
attitude that the Orthodox Churches must combat, joining their efforts with all
who are ready today to defend traditional against the liberal attitudes, the
religious against the 'common human' values, uniting with those willing to defend the right of religions to
express themselves in society.
In my paper I
concentrated mostly on the processes, which take place in contemporary Europe.
However, I will not be surprised if what I said is equally relevant to Australia,
America and other territories, where secular Weltanschauung
attempts to present itself as the only legitimate system of values. (One World system). It may well be the case that the
entire Western civilization, not only in Europe but also elsewhere, is
becoming radically anti-Christian and anti-religious. In this case
there is a need of not only a pan-European but also of a universal common front
formed by traditional religious confessions in order to repel the onslaught of
militant secularism.
http://www.godsplan.org.uk/thegreatapostasy.htm
Basic to the idea of Weltanschauung is that it represents a point of view on the world, a perspective on things, a way of looking at the cosmos from a particular vantage point which cannot transcend its own historicity.
A “worldview” tends to carry the
connotation therefore of being personal, dated, and private. This is not
universally the case (notably in Engels’ usage), but does seem to be at the
root of the powerful attraction the idea of Weltanschauung has had for the
modern West. A worldview may be more than individual —it may be collective
that is, held by everyone belonging to a given nation or class or period. But
even so it does not escape particularity, for it cannot transcend the
experiences and perspectives of that particular nation, class, or period. Thus “worldview”
forfeits all claim to universal validity, and becomes enmeshed in the problems
of historical relativism.
Whereas philosophia is highly theoretical and therefore reserved for an intellectual elite, Weltanschauung is broadly pre-theoretical and therefore available to the mass of people. Furthermore, because philosophy is associated with science,
Worldview is considered to be non-scientific — which can be interpreted positively as prescientific, or negatively as unscientific.
The process by which Christians must critically
confront and appropriate the concepts and categories which the intellectual
tradition bequeaths us, must (from a Calvinist point of view) itself exemplify
the renewing impact of “grace” upon “nature.”
This is true for Weltanschauung as well as for
philosophia, ousia, Geschichtlichkeit, Transzendental, and a host of other key
terms in the history of ideas. It is always a matter of spiritual judgement
whether, in a given historical situation, the secular connotations of a term
require that it be rejected altogether or whether the term can be explicitly
redefined in the context of a Christian categorial framework.
In my judgment, the
latter course is preferable at this time in the case of Weltanschauung and its
cognates.
Albert M. Wolters
There you have it; this is Godsplan in all its entireity.
· The necessity of putting down Satan’s Rebellion.
·
The reason for God’s creation.
·
The importance of the Kingdom.
The necessity of putting down Satan’s
Rebellion.
http://www.godsplan.org.uk/The%20Three%20Earth%20Ages.htm
The reason for God’s creation. (In Brief)
Each and every one of us: from Adam and Eve, was born outside of paradise (Eden), and God put in place the twirling swords, or cherubim to prevent us getting back into paradise until the due time. The Stars Also. (Virgo – Leo)
God came to Earth as Jesus Christ for our salvation, and to show us the way back to Him. He was rejected by the Jews, crucified, died, and was buried. He rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven where Jesus sits at the right hand of God.
If we wish to be with God and Our Lord Jesus Christ we must follow in his footsteps as loyal Christians and relinguish our physical body when the time comes.
Matt 24:9. Then shall
they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you. And ye shall be hated
of all nations for My name’s sake.
The dragon fights a battle he can never win, for God has sworn that Israel
will continue before Him. Her continued existence is also required in order to
fulfill aspects of the Abrahamic, Land, Davidic, and New Covenants which have
yet to find fulfillment. By the end of Jacob’s time of trouble, the terms Israel
and Israel of God (Gal. 6:16) will be synonymous for “all Israel will be saved”
(Rom. 11:26). At that time, the only Israel will be a believing
Israel: So do not fear anyone or anything.
Ezek 37:16 –23
16. Moreover thou son
of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children
of Israel his companions:
17. And join them one
to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
18. And when the
children of thy People shall speak unto thee, saying, “Wilt thou not shew us
what thou meanest by these?”
19. Say unto them,
‘Thus saith the Lord God; ‘ Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is
in the hand of Ephraim, (Great
Britain) and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with
him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be
one in Mine hand,’
20. And the sticks
whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
21. And say unto them, ‘
Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the children of Israel from among
the heathen (unbelievers),
whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into
their own land:
22. And I will make them
one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king (David) shall be king to them all: and they shall be
no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more
at all:
23. Neither shall they
defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things,
nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their
dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they
be My People, and I will be their God.
This is a message from God himself to the Lost and scattered Ten Tribes The time is really imminent so you should be getting your head around this now before it is all too late.
The Importance of the Kingdom. (Revelation)
http://www.godsplan.org.uk/revelation_%20revealed.htm