Christian Worldview Essay (Essay Sample)

CHRISTIAN WORLD VIEW ESSAY
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Introduction
The debate on the origin of the earth or rather the world is quite controversial. It is a subject that has drawn interest not only from the religious people and the non-believers but from the scientists as well. One of the most critical consequences of this debate is the emergence of different theories also known as worldviews that seek to explain how the world came to be the way it is today.
Some of the fundamental theories that seek to answer the questions regarding the earth’s origin are the religious theories, scientific evolution theories and the community or the traditional theories. In the midst of these fundamental theories, divergent opinions have also arisen under each category. For instance, the religious theory of evolution is characterised by conflicting ideologies from its core foundations such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The principal focus of this paper though, will be to defend the Christian worldview and consequently harmonize it with the scientific worldview.
Christian Worldview
Foremost, the Christian worldview is a branch of theism that is pivoted on a belief that God exists. Though Christianity is also characterised by multiple denominations, the core uniting factor is that they all believe that God is the fountain of life. This ideology has been documented in many parts of the Bible, which is the holy book for the Christians. In the accounts of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God is observed to be the author of the entire universe, a task that He accomplished in six days. During the creation period, God is observed to be very systematic in that each event follows a sequential logic. Take, for instance, all the fishes were created after the water and dry land were separated because the former cannot survive with the latter. Similarly, in what even the scientists believe to be critical, plants being the source of food to animals were created prior to the latter.
However, the time frame of events in the Christians world view has received criticism from both within its numerous doctrines and the atheists in general. One particular section that has been the centre of contention is on how God could have achieved all these tasks in just six days. Perhaps, this can be attributed to the fact that individuals more often interpret the events of the Bible literally rather than figuratively. From a literal stand point, a day as it is conventionally believed is only 24 hours.
Therefore, if it is taken as an accepted fact that God worked for a total of 144 hours to make the world as it is, the earth would be less than 6000 years old, a figure that even science has proved through research to be erroneous. Archbishop James Ussher and theologian John Lightfoot were the first people around A.D 1650 to suggest that the earth was about 6,000 years old in their book “Genesis genealogies”. The two religious leaders relied on ages of patriarchs in the genealogies to conclude that the earth was most likely created in 4004 B.C. This hypothesis was later discarded by the scientists who, between 18th and 19th century, conducted geological and paleontological researches and established that the earth was millions of years old.
In my judgement, I will fully concur with the scientists that the earth and the universe are nevertheless millions of years old. Therefore, I do not see a reason as to why people should consider the 24-hours in the Bible to mean a single solar day and take it as the basis of discrediting Christian worldview. After intensive analysis of various books of theology, I have come to realize that the Holy Bible carries both the literal and figurative meaning. It is thus the responsibility of the Christians to critically review the teachings of the Holy Bible and only then they will be able to comprehend the intended message. This is supported by the fact that the initial versions of the Bible were authored either in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. If each of these languages is translated into the most popular English versions, then different interpretations are bound to occur.
Take, for instance, the 4th day’s creation according to Genesis 1:14, “God commanded that there be lights in the sky to separate day and night. He made the sun, moon, and stars to separate light and darkness”. In the verse 4, the Bible says that God had separated light from darkness on the 1st day. The words “evening and morning” show that there was already a separation between night and day. The effect of this statement leaves the critics wondering what actually happened on the 4th day of creation.
One conservative suggestion notes that the Hebrew word for “made” could mean “had made” -God may have made the heavenly bodies millions of years earlier, and He only made them visible on the 4th day of creation. Therefore, if the creation is taken on an earthly perspective, then the account is not abstract truth. Perhaps, when God called for light, he meant light at a specific point on the earth, not light in general because light already existed in outer space. In other words, in verse 14 of genesis, the “let there be sun and moon” actually means let earth’s surface have a clear view of the sun and moon, or let the sky be clear.
To defend the Christian worldview, I would like to compare its fundamental emphasis with that of science. Those who are ardent followers of the teaching of the Bible will agree with me that their coexistence should be strengthened by the fruits of the Holy Spirit. For example, the fruits of patience and kindness advocate that people should be tolerant of the weaknesses of their colleagues by being kind to them. In the long run, by being role models, Christians will inspire errant individuals to mould their personalities. On the other hand, scientific worldview does not teach on morals, but instead projects men as self-centred beings. According to the principals of science, individual intelligence of each of them is responsible for their own fate and destiny.This ideology was first expressed by Charles Darwin in his publications about Evolutions.
Some of these contentious opinions regarding the creation of the earth have led to even more complex ones. Take, for instance, people tend to ask themselves the actual meaning of life especially in moments of joy, boredom, or despair. Scientists have openly predicted that in the near future, man’s inborn knowledge and wisdom will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Therefore, the big question rests on whether human beings and these intelligent beings will deserve equal treatment. Based on the current progress on the creation of artificial intelligence, it is obvious that scientists have not been able to design creations that have unique DNA structure from that made by God. Nevertheless, Christians should be able to comprehend that all which the scientists are doing is nothing more than what God has empowered them to do; they too are God’s image and, therefore, they have a niche in the creation.
Conclusions
Christian worldview is a wide ...