We're in a battle of ideas

Hey everyone :)

We had a really fascinating speaker this week; Tom Osterhus. His subject was the differing worldviews that are competing to take over the minds of the world's population.
He talked about the seven "mind-molders" which are the ways in which worldviews are spread:

Family - Clan/tribe/people group
Religion
Education
Government
Celebration - arts/entertaiment/sports
Media
Economics

One of his main points was the Christians have really dropped the ball in almost all of these areas. But the other worldviews (secular humanist and eastern) have flooded into that gap and taken over these areas with their ideas. We as Christians have a responsibility to teach the truth in all of these areas, but we have failed to and become "tolerant" and wishy washy.

The following table gives the basic summary of the info he gave us about the different worldviews. The table shows the basic questions of life and the answers each worldview gives:

Basic Questions	Biblical Christian WV	Secular WV	Eastern WV
Truth Epistomology How do we know that we know?	Rational Revelation Divine Revelation that comes through the biblical scriptures. The Bible is Truth	Rationalism "Man by taking thought" Means thought and logic is "god" So truth comes from logical reasoning	Intuition Faith in faith, faith in mystical experiences. Truth comes through "feeling"
Orgin Where did the universe and man come from? "Ontology" -Study of where everything came from	The infinite and personal God of the Bible created the universe and man	The result of an as yet undiscovered naturalistic causation. In other words we don't have a clue, but we DEFINITELY know it's not Intelligent Design Universe comes from the big bang, man comes from evolution. These are the predominant theories	We can't really know for sure where everything came from. Brahman is infinite, but impersonal. Like the force in star wars. No mind, no conciousness. Man is god in a temporary state of self-forgetfullness. Somehow, Brahman forgot he doesn't have a personality, and is dreaming that he's 6 billion people with personality
Condition Metaphysics - "What is the nature of what exists?"	Finite and Fallen BUT! Man is made in the Image of God. Every person has dignity, value, and worth. Both the natural and the supernatural exist	Everything is a product of "Chance+Time+Matter" No supernatural, only the material world exists. All a human is is recycled matter. Man is a sack of guts with hair. Man is ultimately an accident. But somehow, man is inherently good	No natural, only the supernatural exists. Everything is an illusion, a dream. Called "Maya" Brahman is the only thing that exists.
Morality Axiology "How should we life?" "What is right and wrong?" Ethics Also: "what has ultimate value?"	Based on the Bible. Moral absolutes as revealed by God	Truth is relative. So moral values are completely subjective. Morality is based on society, or on the individual. Because man is an accident, he has no value. Man is nothing but an animal so why not treat him like one? In fact, we should kill off all the weak ones, like we do with animals. All morality is based on what is "workable" If it works for society, it must be right	Do anything that allows you to gain good Karma. Things aren't good or bad, you just do what works to get you off the karmic wheel. It's amoral
Destiny Teleology "Where are we going?" Destiny of universe and of man	Towards the Kingdom Of God	Utopia in the kingdom of man The final destiny of the universe is heat death, when the universe becomes devoid of energy	Destiny is to escape the Maya. The goal is to drop the water of "you" out of the syringe of "maya" and drop back into the ocean of brahman. In other words, there is NO destiny. The ultimate goal is to disappear and vanish.

It's been a pretty academic week of teaching, but really enjoyable :)

On other matters, we've had a quiet, enjoyable week of living in community together :) We would appreciate your prayers for support as four of the outreach team members still have hefty financial needs that need to be met before we leave at the end of the month. So your prayers would be greatly appreciated :) Also, if you'd like to contribute, write me an email and I'll get back to you about how you can do so :)

Thank you and God bless!!

Josiah

Praises:
It's been an awesome week, praise God!
Our team is continually bonding even tighter together and we're making excellent progress in preparing to go to the island
I'm in excellent health and thriving despite the cold :)

Prayers:
Financial support for our team members
Good health (almost everyone on base has colds)