After studying many of the worldviews through books, articles, talking with people in person, I have concluded that my Christian world view is the most comprehensive, complete, and logical worldview of all the many different worldviews including atheism. While it still holds some difficulties and challenges, it stands tall over all the other worldviews. In no particular order, here is Why I Believe…
1. Faith. Yes Faith, there is a dual definition of faith floating out in the sea of apologetics, in short a blind faith and a Biblical faith. I will explain this in greater detail in a soon coming post, but in short I believe Christianity takes and uses both those types of faith. I am convinced that most people do not understand the true definition of Faith. Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
2. Creation. When I examine the world in which I live, I see evidence for a beginning of the universe, I see intelligence, and a mind behind the matter. I have not found any answer in the material world that points to other trustworthy conclusions.
3. The Human Mind and Soul. Why are we conscience? Why are we special? Why do we have the ability to reason and think? Why do we have moral absolutes? How do we judge what good and evil is? In a world without God, these things are not possible. The Bible describes the human condition perfectly.
4. The Bible. The Bible makes the bold claim to be written inspired word of God, but should we just except the Bible as God’s Word, because the Bible tells us so? The Bible is a reliable book that is written in many different styles, by more than 40 authors, on 3 continents, over a period of about 1,500 years. It is the most unique book ever written and for centuries it has stood the test of time and scrutiny by many. When you compare the Bible to all other religious books, the Bible stands tall.
5. Historical Jesus. Jesus was a real person, despite the constant attempts to blur the evidence. But, Jesus made some bold claims about who He was and what His mission was about. There are many sources, outside of the Bible that confirm the existence of Jesus and record some of the claims He made that are in the Bible. Christians can even exclude even the evidence of the Bible and some of the other questionable secular documents and still make a case for Jesus existence, that is solid.
6. The Church. Yes, the church. I realize that sometimes the church (people) can look pretty bad and can be rather disappointing, but the church (the people) has also made some great strides and impacts in the world in where we live. Christians have been of the forefront leading the charge in several advancements for good in our world. Slavery, Women’s rights, and even Science.
7. Religion. Religion is mans attempt to come to God. Religion shows how we have a yearning to get to God, just like we have a desire for food or procreation. God gives us a desire that can be met by Him just like finding food and companionship. Even though many people have wrongly been lead into believing in something that they haven’t researched, the desire for God is there. I have always preferred the phrase, relationship over religion.
8. The Empty Tomb. Perhaps the greatest evidence for my belief. The resurrection is key to Christianity. Without it, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14 , my faith is in dead. When you examine the evidence for the resurrection you are not left with any other choices that make any sense at all. Jesus made claims that would rise from the dead, something that charlatan would not dare to do.
9. Personal Experience. I realize that my own personal experience is not as strong a proof as some of the other items listed above. For example, I could say that God answered a prayer request of mine, a Mormon could say the same thing. Some personal experiences are subjective. But, this doesn’t mean I should throw out the personal experience all together.
Let me stop you before you start to pick apart these individual items by saying that no single one of these proves anything. No, I cannot in a denotative way point to God and say “see, there He is” like I might point out Bob who fixed my car or Larry who made me a sandwich. (I will address why I think that this is perfectly how God designed it to be in a later post.) Let me point out that each of these individual areas lead or point to a particular conclusion that God does exist, and that Jesus is who He claimed to be. It is the sum of the conclusions that add up far better than any other worldview. Biblical Christianity uses all the different methods of science, philosophy, reason, and reality to build a strong case for a Christian worldview. No other worldview can claim that which Christianity does, they either fail in arguments in one or more areas by contradicting themselves or by not being able to produce the evidence that Christianity does.
If you are searching for answers, and want to start looking at different worldview, that is great, can I offer a suggestion? Start with Christianity. There is something about Jesus that most of the other major worldviews want to include him in their teaching. To Muslims, Jesus was one of 28 prophets, In Hinduism Jesus is a good moral teacher, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons view Him as the Son of God, by which we can earn our salvation. Jesus is the central feature in Christianity, not only because of his teachings but because of who He is, and claimed to be, God.
As always, questions, comments, and discussions welcome. I am looking forward to the breakdown of these items that I have listed above. In my next few posts I will give some basic information about apologetics and lay a foundation and order down for looking at the evidence piece by piece.
DId God Really Say... 
“I have concluded that my Christian world view is the most comprehensive, complete, and logical worldview of all the many different worldviews including atheism. ”
Just in case you weren’t aware, atheism isn’t a worldview. It’s a common mistake, though.
I’m not sure about that. Maybe we are splitting hairs over a definition of worldview. When I use the term, worldview, I don’t mean religion. A worldview can be religious in nature, but it doesn’t have to be. My thought about worldview that it is how we see the world in which we live.
You are right, atheism is not a religion, it is the absence of a belief of God(s) or theism. I hope you caught that I didn’t capitalize the “a” in atheism either. Would you agree with my thoughts on that?
Last thought, I do believe atheism requires a degree faith, similar to what a religion might have. I will post a blog on that thought in a few days.
Thanks for the comment.
Not splitting hairs that much. I interchange ‘worldview’, ‘ideology’ and ‘religion’ pretty freely.
My point is that atheism is a single position. And a single position isn’t enough to make a worldview.
Now, there are many worldviews in which atheism could be included. But none of those worldviews could fairly be called ‘atheism’ or ‘the atheist worldview’.
Here’s a couple examples:
A fair number of Buddhists are atheists. They don’t believe in any god or gods. But their worldview/religion is Buddhism.
There’s a group of people called the Raliens. They believe that human life was seeded on this planet by extra-terrestrials. And, since they don’t believe in a god or gods, they’re atheists too.
I’m not sure the worldview I hold (and yes, I do have one) has an actual name. I might call it a ‘skeptical’ worldview, as I generally adhere to a lot of skepticism. And my worldview includes atheism. But it isn’t atheism. If that makes sense.
“Last thought, I do believe atheism requires a degree faith, similar to what a religion might have. ”
I disagree, but that depends on what definition of ‘faith’ you are using.
I understand what you mean now, and I would then agree with you about it being a single position. And the “faith” comment I made was made with the thought that most people who hold atheism ascribe in general, not always, to the ideas of evolutionary science, and the theories that come after. (Multiverse, The Landscape, etc…) I wasn’t thinking about the Raliens, hope they are not offended. I will write more on this in the future.