The Worldview Essay.
Forgive my boldness; I would like to share something you know. The term: worldview. This is a set of beliefs you and I live by. These ‘guides’ to life or ways of living are taught and learned through various means. Much of today’s dominating global -view has trickled down from the mountainside of the great intellectuals of the past 300 years in Western society. A small group of thinkers like Darwin, Hobbes, Hume, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Sartre, Kafka, Camus, Jung, Hesse, Koestler, Huxley and more have established the new intellectual landscape for some centuries.
You may not have heard of all of them, but they fuel some of your beliefs.
I have read a few of their famous books, devouring the publications eagerly and was deeply impacted by them. Some were the great thinkers who liberated my mind and our contemporary society. They were unrivaled men whose contribution to Western thought is priceless. Some of their books caused me to stay up for hours at night to complete reading those works of compelling genius.
I studied two of their ‘messages to the world’ in print in High School. I learned that these thinkers were skillful with words, causing 100s of 1000s like me to accept their cognitive engineering of contemporary Western society’s social and evolutionary progress.
There were key themes in books that we studied in High school. For example, the individual versus the society: Huxley’s vision of the future where people were divided into 3-4 classes and how a particular drug was given to ‘lower’ masses to stop them from knowing that they were living in an elitist governed Utopia and kept ‘happily’ unaware. ( Book[1])
My generation, the Baby Boomers, wanted to change the world! We did precisely that. For good or ill? You decide! As I aged, I grew up in a way that reflected what I had read for nearly three decades, including schooling and early adulthood. Yes! Ideas can have real-world consequences.
Yet as I grew older, I could see some flaws and eventually the ‘brain-numbing’ or indoctrination of the modern Western civilization from earlier decades.
I’ve read more philosophy and particular technology books, which opened my mind to search, review and understand carefully.
It wasn’t the wisdom of another more extraordinary thinker that brought down the intellectual Everest for me. The meaninglessness of my life, the emptiness and the void in my heart, tolled the death bell of this long-cherished worldview. After considerably more time, I concluded that their writing was intelligently crafted, deceptive, and skillful fiction. We could term this collective body of work as misleading, delusional conception and dis -information. The over-arching strategy of their books is an attempt to explain away God. To deny Him a place in our world and present Him as an ancient mythic- being. An improbable Wizard in the sky.
It was my original acceptance of their spellbinding system of beliefs (the atheistic worldview) that brought me to that cave of despair and darkness in the first place. They taught that God is dead!’ ‘If you want to, then do it!’Nice single girls can! ‘If It doesn’t hurt anyone, go ahead.’ ‘That man, not God, is the measure of everything.’ ‘God left us all alone, and He departed after creation.’ True? Or not? I thought, Pessimism is truism!
Existence is meaninglessness; Face that life with courage. Courage is meaningless.The gladiators motto or tagline was,' eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die!'
Look up at the night sky and see the billions of galaxies in
overwhelming darkness. Is the universe impersonal or is it the intentional craftmanship of an intelligent Designer?
Ask yourself, when you are faced with a moral decision, do I invest this moment in my life for short term benefits or for long-term gains? We ask ourselves how do we make sense of all the particulars we encounter in our lives? From Adam to Zoology, from a baby's cry to a Ferrari,from ideas to transcendence, from the cell to a prisoner. All is phenomena in the world of our space and time. All things, we can see or sense,yet there are things that we cannot see, yet we know that they are true and real. We have asked, how does this all fit together? The question wrestled through the ages.
Who do we trust? Mortal man or immortal God?
Because, like 100s of millions of others, we choose
to trust some of those trickled downstream of ideas from a few mortal men who—I
believe--- undermined the foundation of our current Western society to fracture
the granite-like base of our collective lives. Their ideas sound good until you
see the consequences.
Aftereffects of some trickling down thoughts are found in the rise of relativism, neo-atheism, and the emergence of the celebrity cult, socialism, political correctness and reality ensembles. One example is the social popularity and approval of reality TV programs. These people are rarely endowed with awarded talents, fine acting skills or other merits except that they are famous. For instance, the Kardashian family’s fame lies primarily in self-promotion and clever marketing. Many crave such celebrity, power, wealth and prestige. ‘Appearance is everything,’ a myriad cry out. Cosmetic surgeons do whole-body makeovers to chase the elusive ‘fountain of youth.’
Today, celebrities, whether athletes, rock bands, movie stars, billionaires, models... etc., project our inner desires. Our lives in the digital age reflect the core value of belonging: where do we fit in? We are composites of the persons we want to emulate. We mirror other mirrors, other like-minded people; it is one reason for the massive popularity of social media.( Three Billion members) Becoming more like what we desire. Is this good or ill? We consume and assume worth by buying acceptance and belonging to particular people- or groups. From our data, the web algorithmic marketing pitch, honed and shaped by our offline and online lives over the past years, precisely targets our human need for worth. Despite our fiercely guarded independence, we comply, longing to belong.
I know you believe we are all made of man’s measure of worth. I
was duped, but now I see. I am free from mass deception. More than a Game
Changer, it is a Life Transference! Transferred from the domain of man to the
Kingdom of God.
I am overwhelmed by gratitude. Who or what liberated me? All that
happened was that somebody took me out of a deep cave into pure, radiant light.
This ‘new reality,’ which I have begun to live in, makes me want to rescue
others trapped in the deep cave and release them. This is a gift I am wholly
unworthy to receive, yet I did! Originally a prisoner now rescued from
falsehood and fiction, illusion and delusion.
Why should I be fortunate to experience this true enlightenment, this change of
perspective, heart and mind? Supernatural Love found a way.
Transformed by new concepts and others whose selflessness, devoted actions and
committed friendships shared their light. There is abundant Love, genuine
acceptance, and a meaningful and purposeful life to be found.
Experiencing new and renewed relationships in the illumined world that reaches
beyond barriers and toward healthier living with the fundamental dynamic power
from the Book of Ages.[2]
(Thank you for your patience in reading this letter.)
Recommended sources for further research:
Renewing Your Mind by R.C. Sproul.
Consequences of Ideas by R.C.Sproul.
Streams of Confusion by Brad Scott.
1984 by George Orwell.
Academy of Ideas: YouTube Channel.
What do you think? Care to comment? Your nuggets, your thoughts are welcome?
[1] Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 1930.
[2] The Bible.
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