boldly going where no man has gone before // worldview

Star Trek is known as one of the most influential television phenomena, ever. While the original program ran from 1966-69, it's been followed by four other shows, ten movies (and counting), countless books and toys, and one of the most (if not the) largest and most dedicated fanbases in all of TV, movies, and books. The show itself followed its characters' brave proclamation "to boldly go where no man has gone before," by crossing racial boundaries and taking on deep moral lessons at a time when that just wasn't done in television. 

As Dwayne Day said in his essay "Star Trek as a Cultural Phenomenon" [emphasis added]:

"As many fans later explained, Star Trek presented a positive image of the future at a time when the news was filled with stories of racism, social strife, and war. When many people wondered if the world would emerge intact from the Cold War, Star Trek depicted many different races working peacefully together several hundred years into the future. At its most basic level, Star Trek had a simple humanistic message: humanity will be okay."

Let's break down one specific scene from Star Trek: 

The obvious message is one against racism; when one of the characters says of the oppressed race, "Slaves? That was changed thousands of years ago, you were freed," the other character says, "Freed! But were we free to be men? [..] Free to live our lives in equality and dignity?" I don't know if the faces of the aliens, which look like those delicious frosted half-moon cookies, were meant to be symbolic, but it could certainly be taken that way. 

Yet while the scene is definitely anti-racism, there is a deeper underlying message as well. As the title of the scene says, both these men (or aliens, I guess) are "committed to hatred." At a time in history when the racial debate in America was full of hatred, and when we were in the midst of the Vietnam War and the growing concern over the Cold War, hate was everywhere, on every side of every debate. This was Star Trek's way of showing this fact. 

Boldly go, said Star Trek. Whatever your race, whatever your background, wherever you come from. Go. Fight the hatred. Don't worry so much. Humanity will survive. Everything will be okay in the end. 

Now go fix it. Go be the good in the world. Go.

Boldly.

Blogging "A Clear View": Truth and Knowing, Part I

This post is the second installment in the blogging of Keith Ogorek's "A Clear View."

how do we know anything?
It's the question that mankind has attempted to answer for millennia. Do we learn things from experience? Have we always "known" things, and then experience simply makes us realize that we know them? 

According to Ogorek, as Christians, we believe that we know things by three different ways...

the upper story (the unseen world)

revelational // revealed to us by God

{example: God reveals himself to us}

the lower story (the seen world)

cognitive // we know intuitively; what's already in the mind

{example: we know how to cry}

empirical // we've learned through experience and observation; what we learn

{example: we learn how to read and write and dress ourselves}

what can we know?
Once again, man has come up with many different answers. 

Herodotus said that we can never know "the true nature of the universe," because the universe is constantly changing -- and therefore truth is constantly changing as well. 

Parmenides said that the world is unchanging and fixed, but we can't know it through our senses; we can only know it through reason. 

Plato said that there are two layers to the world -- one layer that we can know through our senses, and another that is constantly changing and has no real truth. 

Aristotle thought much like Plato and also believed that there are some things that cannot change. Unlike Plato, however, Aristotle said that the unchanging "universals" are present in material, physical "particulars," and that by studying particulars, we can understand the universals. Therefore, we can know and understand this objective world of universals.

Thomas Aquinas drew from Plato's and Aristotle's ideas and said that the world has two stories: an upper story that cannot be seen, the world of God and grace, understood by faith and revelation; and a lower story that can be seen, the material world of man and nature, understood by reason, interaction, and observation. These two stories are separated by the "line of dispair."

During the Aristotelian Revolution (commonly known as the Renaissance), the material world -- nature -- began to overshadow the unseen world -- the world of grace. This heavily influenced the arts and sciences, and Michelangelo, da Vinci, and others rose up. The Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa were painted. Da Vinci began his work in the field of aviation (and about a billion other areas, too). 

However, it wasn't all good; while things were getting done on earth, the important questions weren't be answered. The world of nature was celebrated, and the world of grace was shunned.  By looking at the time period's works, we can clearly see that the upper story was ignored: philosophy attempted to explain all the big questions, such as those about God, but completely ignored revealed truth like Scripture. Artwork portrayed biblical figures with mythological creatures -- a clashing of worlds. Humanism became the prevalent worldview.

Sadly, mankind sought real truth, but they were looking in the wrong places -- the places they could see and touch physically instead of the world of grace revealed by God -- and thus found it impossible to reach.

Then, in response to the Renaissance, along came the Reformation. 

Reformation = "an attempt to restore a proper relationship between nature and grace -- between the upper and lower stories" (Keith Ogorek)

The Reformers, including Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, dealt with the issue of "nature vs. grace" by reaffirming doctrine -- by rejecting humanism (which had trickled into the church), emphasizing the authority of Scripture above all else, and denouncing human "works" as necessary for salvation. 

sola scriptura // scripture alone

sola Christus // Christ alone

Like the Renaissance before it, the Reformation hugely impacted culture. This cultural "re-birth" is evidenced by the blossoming of education, learning, economics, civil government, just laws, creativity in arts and music, etc. The Reformers realized that reason needed to be balanced by revelation, and nature needed to be balanced by grace -- and the world flourished because of it. 

"If you read all the annals of the past, you will find no century like this since the birth of Christ. Such building and planting, such good living and dressing, such enterprise in commerce, such a stir in the arts, has not been since Christ came into the world. And how numerous are the sharp and intelligent people who leave nothing hidden and unturned: even a boy of twenty years knows more nowadays than was known formerly by twenty doctors of divinity." 

-Martin Luther on the Reformation

security cravers // worldview

When Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living," he was surely pointing to what say social sciences would say when they talk about every human being needs a sense of security and a sense of meaning and belonging. We need to make sense of our world. We need to find security in life. And the deepest answers -- the deepest philosophies of life -- the deepest worldviews are actually grounded in faith and in religion. Science does not answer many of those deep questions, and it's only faith and worldviews which do.

-Os Guinness [emphasis added]

Just as men crave respect and women want to be loved, every human being desperately desires to feel secure. They need a place to belong, they need to know the meaning of their own existence, they need answers -- they want to know that they do, in fact, belong in the first place.

So, throughout our lives, we seek to quench that desire for knowledge and a sense of belonging. We try to find that security in all sorts of worldly things -- wealth, a relationship, popularity, a career. But it's only through God that we can find true security, and know the true reason why we're here, and begin to understand the answers and meaning to all the big "life questions." Through Christ, we know where we belong.

Blogging "A Clear View": Introduction to Worldview

This post is the first in a series of blogging Keith Ogorek's "A Clear View."

Everyone has a worldview. Constructed of our beliefs, our worldview is the lens through which we see the world. As a Christian, it is my goal to have a sound worldview based firmly on biblical principles. More than that, I want to be able to understand other people's worldviews, in order to influence them and bring them to Christ.

Because, after all, what's the point of having knowledge if we don't use it? Keith Ogorek makes a very good point:

If we simply study worldview to increase our knowledge, but fail to use that knowledge to communicate the reality of the Christian life at every point of culture we touch, there is the potential for us to live in an "intellectual gated community."

Believers in Christ are called to go boldly and spread the Gospel. We are not to live double lives, and keep our "everyday" selves separate from our "church" selves. If our identity is truly in Christ, than we should allow -- no, we should emphatically desire to blend our church lives with our everyday lives, and influence the secular culture. 

Therefore, knowing our own worldview, and having an understanding of the worldviews of others, simply isn't enough. Simply having that knowledge would only give us the capacity to label others, depending on their worldview. Yet if we truly love people as God has called us to, we won't merely label them; we'll use our knowledge of worldviews to help them understand the beauty of the Gospel. 

So what, exactly, is a worldview made up of? 

a worldview = "a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold consciously or subconsciously about the basic makeup of our world." (James Sire)

According to Ogorek, there are three major components that form a person's worldview:

1) the person's view of God

does He exist?

what are His attributes?

can we know Him?

2) the person's view of Man

good vs. evil

fate vs. free will

immortal vs. mortal

who or what his Man's authority?

3) the person's view of Existence

origin and end

good vs. evil

material worlds vs. immaterial worlds

how do we know knowledge?

how do we know truth?

How we view each one of these three things -- God, Man, and Existence -- determines our worldview. And our views in each of these three areas will influence our views on the other two.

Ultimately, our "Life Picture" is the application of our worldview:

"A Life Picture is the perspective or conviction we have about the common things of life that is informed and influenced by our worldview." (Keith Ogorek)

Our "Life Picture" is how we view everyday issues, such as money, family, work, music, sports, leisure, etc. We develop our "Life Picture" through our worldview, so a person's Life Picture is a window into their worldview. We can often determine a person's worldview based off of their Life Picture -- something important to remember when evangelizing.

So let's talk about individual worldviews:

I think that one's experiences and education are what make a worldview personal and dynamic.  While more than one person might have the same worldview, their individual experiences and thoughts are what brought them to it, and that's what will determine how passionate they are on certain points and less emphatic on others. Each situation is unique. 

As for how one develops a worldview in the first place -- I believe that everything influences one's worldview, and contributes to its formation. The books we read, the songs we hear, the movies we see. How others act, whether it be in person or through the television. How others talk, whether they be our friends and family and pastor and coworkers or a radio personality. Words, spoken and written. Pictures, moving or still. Everything.

I think the question that has the most influence in shaping a person's worldview is the question, "Does God exist?" While singularly believing in His existence or denying it does not form a complete worldview, how we view God will influence all of our beliefs. For example, a belief in God will allow us to answer the question, "Who or what is Man's authority?," and help us determine how the origin and end of the universe has come and will come to pass. 

As for the Life Picture, I personally believe "leisure" is the most important issue. What we do in our leisure time is, I think, the most telling of our worldview and mindset.  How much leisure time do we have? Do we spend so much time working, in pursuit of wealth, that we have very little time left for leisure? And the leisure time that we do have -- Do we spend it with family? Do we spend it in prayer and God's Word? Do we spend it doing selfish things?

Our worldview influences everything we do, and everything we do and observe influences our worldview. 

At the end of the introduction, Ogorek leaves his readers with some questions to consider. Questions that I think would be good to ponder every night, as we reflect back on the previous day, and prepare ourselves for tomorrow:

"Would the non-Christians you come in contact with know you are a Christian? If so, why? If not, why?"

love isn't just for valentine's day.

"For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16)

Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day with reds and pinks? Because hearts are red? 

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)

Red stands for blood. Blood that was shed for us, blood that was drawn by a crown of thorns, and nails driven through a pair of holy hands and holy feet. 

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

Love is not roses and chocolate and candlelit dinners. Love is not hearts cut out of red construction paper and little candies with sweet messages imprinted on them. These things--these material things--are used to symbolize our love for each other, and there's nothing wrong with that, but lately it seems they have taken the place of love itself. 

Love is more than a feeling. Humans' emotions swell and fade, come and go. Emotions fail, and as we know from 1 Corinthians 13, love never fails. While we can definitely feel love and affection, love is so much more than an emotion.

Love is dedicating ourselves to persevere through our emotions, through any situation, so that when we no longer feel "attracted to" or when we feel angry or hurt or unwanted by someone we love, we stick by them all the same. Love is sacrificing your own wants, desires, and ambitions for someone else, even when it hurts.  Even when they don't deserve it. Especially when they don't deserve it.

Love is sacrifice. Love is a verb. Love is something you do.

Love is cleaning the house for your mom, not to score "awesome daughter/son points," not for personal gain, but because you sincerely want to make things easier for her. Love is helping your little siblings even when they're bugging you like crazy. Love is walking with your friend through a tough time even when it's hard for you. Love is praying for an enemy. Love is sacrificing your time, your desires, your possessions, your blood for someone else. Love is dying in the place of another. 

God is love. Jesus dying for us is love. 

Dying for someone is so much more than just a feeling. 

True love -- God's love -- is worth everything, and more. 

Share God's love with someone today. 

{1 Corinthians 13}