WORLDVIEW
Are Your Kids Intellectually Naked
By David A. Noebel, Ph.D.
Guest Writer
CBN.com - Summit Ministries -
Too many Christian young people are ill-prepared
to lead. The vast majority have no concept of the components of their
worldview and stand intellectually naked before left-wing professors.
Throughout this study, it should become clear
that Marxism and Secular Humanism are similar in a number of ways.
The body of this work will demonstrate that this relationship is not
casual or peripheral. The two are family. Secular Humanism is the
mother (Humanists trace their heritage to the Greeks four hundred
years before Christ), and Marxism is the daughter. Secular Humanism
is the root, Marxism the branch.
At the heart of both worldviews are atheism,
materialism, spontaneous generation, evolution, and moral relativism.
From a comprehensive point of view, their differences are minor. Both
Karl Marx and Humanist Paul Kurtz recognize the truth of these assertions.
Marx said it like this: Communism, as fully developed naturalism,
equals humanism. (1) And Kurtz
says Marx is a humanist because he rejects theistic religion and
defends atheism. (2)
While we watch Marxism crumble in Eastern Europe,
and while men and women in India suffer horribly because of their
society's acceptance of a version of Cosmic Humanism, America's
public schools are immersed in these same values, under a different
name and with a slight change in emphasis.
Further, Cosmic Humanism and Secular Humanism
are close kin. The New Age movement is little more than spiritualized
Secular Humanism. Take the Secular Humanist's exaltation of self and
hatred for Christ, sprinkle in some meditation, reincarnation, and
anti-rationalism, and Presto! You've created another worldview. Cosmic
Humanism claims to meet man's spiritual needs something Marxism and
Secular Humanism cannot claim but it is stuck with an impersonal,
unjust god (there is little difference between claiming no god exists
and claiming everything is god). At bottom, the New Age movement is
as bankrupt as all other anti-Christian worldviews.
The significance of the similarities between
these three anti-Christian views cannot be overstated. While we
watch Marxism crumble in Eastern Europe, and while men and women in
India suffer horribly because of their society's acceptance of a version
of Cosmic Humanism, America's public schools are immersed in these
same values, under a different name and with a slight change in emphasis.
Only when the emphasis has completely shifted to a Christian perspective
can young people flourish in light of the true worldview. And this
dramatic shift in emphasis can be brought about best through the leadership
of a few well-grounded, confident Christian students.
This, then, is our fundamental reason for preparing
Understanding the Times -- too many Christian young people are
ill-prepared to lead. The vast majority have no concept of the
components of their worldview and stand intellectually naked before
left-wing professors. Henry says that evangelical students know more
about God than their secular counterparts, but with some few gratifying
exceptions, neither home nor church has shaped a comprehensive and
consistent faith that stands noon-bright amid the dim shadows of spiritual
rebellion and moral profligacy. (3)
Christ's teachings impart just such a noon-bright
faith to all Christians who master their worldview, who understand
the times. This book's foundational verse, 1 Chronicles 12:32,
announces that just two hundred individuals who understood the times
provided the leadership for an entire nation. We believe that a comprehensive
knowledge of the Christian worldview and its rivals will provide today's
young people with the understanding necessary to become Christian
leaders.
Marx and
Engels, Karl Marx-Frederick Engels: Collected
Works, 40 volumes (New York: International Publishers,
1976), vol. 3, p. 296.
Paul Kurtz, The Fullness of Life (New York: Horizon Press, 1974), p.
36.
Carl F.H.
Henry, Twilight of a Great Civilization (Westchester, IL:
Crossway Books, 1988), p. 94.
Dr. David A. Noebel, president of Summit Ministries
in Manitou Springs, Colorado, has been involved in training students
in Christian apologetics for more than 30 years. This article is taken
from his book Understanding the Times.
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