A Question That Demands Your Attention

I have just finished reading a great book about the history of science by Nancy Pearcey and Charles Thaxton, The Soul of Science.  The authors have spent much time in the original sources, looking not directly at who discovered what, but what led each of the great minds to the conclusions that they reached.  I was a budding scientist in the 60’s, full of enthusiasm and a desire to learn.  Later, at the Military Academy, I took astronomy, chemistry, physics, calculus, and engineering.  In each of these courses, we learned about the foundations of the principles that governed the discipline.  But we also learned, perhaps more by osmosis than through outright instruction about the world as a godless machine, all wound up and running according to the set of laws that govern all matter in the universe.  That was my foundation, a limited worldview that drew much of its being from observation.

What did it matter?  I learned the “laws of nature” and became a rather intelligent being, capable of both recall of what I had been taught, but more importantly application of that knowledge into fields that had not even been conceived of when I graduated.  By all measures, I was well educated.  My recent reading however drew attention to an aspect of my thought process that has changed over time, which is my worldview. 

Why is a worldview important?  Let me assert here that everyone has a worldview, and that worldview influences every decision, every bit of learning, and every interaction that you make, from the day you make your first cognitive decision until the day you die.  Your worldview is the foundation on which every idea you have either rests firmly, or that idea is set aside on no foundation at all, slowly sinking into the sands of time.  Your worldview makes it easy to assume things.   We cannot use pure Aristotelian observation to base our ideas on today.  If we had to resort to that basis, how much of what we depend on daily, our computers and telephones, airplanes and automobiles would be called into question because we could not physically observe “truth”.  We must make basic assumptions as to why things happen in our daily lives.  Those assumptions are part of your worldview.

Many of our worldviews are fractured worldviews.  We go to church and think we agree with this, or disagree with that.  We listen to politicians and make value judgments.  Do you believe in evolution; miracles; separation of church and state; an inerrant Bible?  What is the purpose of government?  What about cloning, genetic engineering, and stem cell research?  As much as we would like to believe, none of us are neutral.  No one really thinks in his heart, “I really don’t care”.  We have all made value judgments on each one of these issues or ideas, and that judgment is based on your worldview.

The book I have been reading however, has led to some new thoughts about how my worldview affects my thoughts and judgments.  Our worldview is not only our foundation, but it is a set of binoculars.  Binoculars are a very useful tool.  They allow us to see clearly what is too distant to see.  They bring into focus details that would otherwise be unintelligible.  But a set of binoculars also filters out the surroundings.  We cannot see beyond what is within the field of view of the binoculars.  Everything else just does not exist for that moment.  Our worldview is much the same.  Copernicus developed a sun-centered universe not because of new scientific discoveries, but used the same observations as his predecessors but with a differing worldview.  He filtered the “facts” accepting some and rejecting others as he judged them through his worldview, and came to new conclusions.  

The world around us draws startling conclusions from their “facts”.  Is evolution the “fact” as many purport it to be?  Certainly not, but is there evolution going on today, certainly.  What about global warming, fact or fancy?  Why is the scientific world in such an uproar?  Are they not looking at the same data, and dispassionately drawing conclusions? 

In light of this, as an educational institution, we must acknowledge our teaching is based on a worldview.  To say that we just teach, and let the students draw their own conclusion is intellectual dishonesty at its worst.  No institution of learning, especially a K-12 school, can teach everything.  There are not enough hours in the day, or years to be devoted to provide that mass of information adequate attention.  Teachers and schools teach what they teach, based on what they believe. Their worldview dictates the “facts” that are presented, and how they are presented. 

At Bayshore, our worldview is a Christian worldview.  Sounds nice doesn’t it?  But what does it mean in our educational environment?  Let’s define our view first.  “God has made everything in this world for His good pleasure and His glory, and it exists and continues to exist through His will.  Secondly, that God redeemed sinners who confess their sins and acknowledge Him through faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.”  Given this worldview, some would argue that Bayshore Christian School should immediately stop the presentation of evolution (as it obviously falls outside the perspective of our binoculars), ignore much of the radical environmental movement as it is based in pantheism, and so on.  We could dramatically limit what is taught here.  We could out of hand dismiss evolution, abortion, homosexuality, Islam, humanism, secularism, communism all as wrong, and not worthy of time and intellectual investigation.

Where does that leave the student however?  Worldviews are not implanted, they are developed.  Some is an adoption of the parent’s or teacher’s views as someone in authority and due respect.  I contend however, the only lasting foundation is built by a discerning intellectual investigation of the available data, and a faithful judgment thereafter.  Through classical educational methods, we must focus not on knowing more facts, but faithfully learning how to judge the facts; to learn both fact and dialectic, and finally rhetoric.  In knowing both right and wrong, and being able to defend what we believe, our foundational worldview is strong, and not susceptible to undermining.  A student that leaves our school, unable to understand why they believe will be attacked, perhaps successfully with new ideas, and persuasive arguments based on what they have never heard.

Sir Isaac Newton, perhaps one of the greatest minds of all time, drew all of his conclusions from facts that were well known for centuries prior to his birth.  His three laws have become the basis for modern physics and engineering.  He is the father of that grand clockwork that we call the universe, the clockwork that is wound up and operates autonomously today.  But listen to his words, and draw your own conclusions on his discovery. "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."  He later writes in the General Scholium, “This Being governs all things, not as a soul of the world, but as Lord over all; … and Deity is the dominion of God, not over his own body, as those imagine who fancy God to be the soul of the world, but over servants”.   From his perspective, Newton’s discovery was the discovery of the perfection of God’s creation.  That was his worldview. 

The question that now demands your attention is, what is your worldview, and on what is that worldview based?