W‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ORLDVIEW PAPER ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS OVERVIEW The reading

W‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ORLDVIEW PAPER ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS OVERVIEW The readings, lessons, and assignments that you have completed thus far have prepared you for the completion of the Worldview Research Paper. In this assignment, you will demonstrate critical thinking strategies, an understanding of the term worldview, and clearly articulate components of a biblical/Christian worldview. INSTRUCTIONS Format and Reference Requirements: 1. Cover page – This is the first page to be included in your paper. (Based on the formatting style that you have chosen – APA, MLA, or Turbian). a. APA: For this course, a Summary or Abstract is not required. b. MLA: This format does not require a title page, but does require a specific format for student information at the top of the first page. c. Turabian: Please follow the guidelines articulated in the Turabian style guide. 2. Content pages – These pages will contain your content and fulfill the requirements as listed below. a. Parts I and II must be clearly identified. b. Complete the minimum word count for Part I (50 Words) and II (400 Words). i. Do NOT include the question as part of your word count. ii. Direct quotations must be short and limited. iii. Include your word count at the bottom of each section of the paper (Parts I and II). iv. NOTE: Submissions totaling fewer than 250 words will not receive credit. c. Check your work for spelling and grammatical errors. d. Be sure to do your own work; do not plagiarize. e. Your paper should be double-spaced. 3. Bibliography/References/Works Cited page a. In addition to the in-text citations, a Bibliography/Reference or Works Cited page must be included. b. A minimum of 3 different sources is required. i. Use academic sources for your paper. (For example, do not include blogs, social media, opinion pages, or Wikipedia.) ii. At least 2 of the sources must be outside of the materials used in this course. (Course materials include: the Bible, any required reading, course videos, and the required textbooks.) Content of the Research Paper: Answer the following questions in 2 clearly separate parts (I and II). I. Part I: (50-word minimum) What is a worldview? Define what the term “worldview” means. Use descriptive phrases to support your definition. Approach it in the following manner: A friend has heard the term worldview, but does not know what it is or means. Your assignment, here in Part I, is to define and describe “worldview” so that they now understand. Be sure to include in-text citations for any source material. II. Part II: (400-word minimum) Articulate the biblical/Christian worldview answers (what is believed) for each of the following 5 questions. Give 2 relevant Scripture references for each of the 5 questions below (do not write out the verses) to support why it is believed. Note: An overview of these specific worldview questions can be found in the presentation, “The Five Questions of a Worldview,” presented by Dr. Lew Weider in a previous module: week. Each of the 5 questions must be answered in a separate paragraph. 1. The Question of Origin – (How did life begin? How did mankind come into existence?) 2. The Question of Identity – (What does it mean to be human? Are humans more important than animals?) 3. The Question of Meaning/Purpose – (Why does mankind exist? Why do I exist?) 4. The Question of Morality – (What is meant by right and wrong? How should I live?) 5. The Question of Destiny – (Is there life after death? What will happen to me when I die?) Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the SafeAssign plagiarism tool. This lecture is designed to help you understand the five questions that every worldview should answer. Or another way to say it. If you’re wanting to find out the religious or worldview beliefs of a person. If they answer these five questions, it would really help you to determine what worldview they have. What’s a worldview? Worldview as a set of beliefs that a person has that helps to determine reality. It’s a set of beliefs that guide them to making decisions, to set of beliefs that sets the framework for their belief system. For example, if you believe the Bible is the Word of God, and you use it as a standard for what you believe and why you believe it. That worldview would be a biblical worldview. If you use Muhammad’s teachings or the teachings of the Quran to guide your decisions about the important questions of life, then you would have a Muslim or Islamic worldview. Every worldview sets a, a, a way of looking at reality and a set of beliefs that a person begins to hold and determines what is truth for you or what is truth as an absolute or truth from your perspective, That’s what a worldview is. It is like a set of glasses, like these glasses and the tint of the glasses. If I put them on shades, everything at a particular color, this color being read, your worldview acts the same way. It colors the way you see and make decisions about everything. What are the five questions that every worldview answers? Or is a guide to help you determine what a person’s worldview would be. The first question is the question of origin. How did we get here? How did the universe get here? How did the Earth come to be and all the beauty that we see around us? Well, if you’re a naturalist, secularist, you would believe that the world came by random chance over millions and millions of years. This has all evolved to wait as today. If you’re a Muslim, you believe that Allah, God, has created the universe. And humans. They may have a different belief about many other issues, but the ultimate belief is in God. If you’re a Hindu, you may not care that. They really don’t care how it got here. They just know it. It is here. From a biblical worldview perspective, we believe that we begin with God. We don’t create God. God created us. He created everything. Genesis 11 says In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Chapter 2. We also articulates that He created man and took a rib from Adam and created Eve and brought the two of them together. So a worldview will answer the question of how we got here. The second question that’s answered is the question of identity. This answers, what does it mean to be human? Are humans any different than animals or other living things? That’s an important question to answer because if you come from an evolutionary perspective, humans are just more of a sophisticated animal. The problem though, is, how do we have value? If everything evolved the same way? Is there really any difference between humans and plants? And in some world religions and worldviews, they worship those things or it at, for example, within Hinduism and Buddhism, there’s an idea of that we go through this process of reincarnation. And based on karma, you may evolve into another person after death. Or if you are evil in this world, you may be reborn as an animal or even as a plant life. So everything has a relative sacredness to it. In those two worldviews. From the Biblical worldview perspective, we believe that every human being is created in the image of God and has intrinsic value because it’s not based on your talent, your ability, your looks, your occupation, the color of you‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍r skin, where you are born, whose family you were born into. Every human being has been created in the image of God and has value. And how we treat those individuals is vitally important. How do you treat your spouse, your parent, your child, your co-worker here, boss, your neighbor, your enemy. Jesus taught us a new commandment from a biblical worldview perspective. We are to love as he loved, not the way people love us, but the way Jesus loves us, which is on conditional. The third question, that every worldview should answer. The question of meaning or purpose. What value do we have? Why are we here? What is the purpose of us being on this planet? What is your purpose for living? Every worldview has to answer that question. Is it to magnify Allah and obey his commands? Is it to come to the reality or the perspective that everything is an illusion as in Hinduism. And that the ultimate purpose of your life is to have no attachments to this world. And that ultimately there is this standard or idea that ultimately everything that we see around us, this table, everything that I see, everything that I hear is all an illusion. And we have gotta get to this perspective where once we realize that everything isn’t real, then we can ultimately get to the place, move up the caste system where we can enter nirvana. There’s all kinds of questions related to purpose and each different worldview for the Christian. From the Biblical worldview perspective, or Christian worldview perspective. The ultimate purpose is to know God and Jesus Christ to be sent, to know who we are in relationship to him, and how we fit into the big picture of this world and how we can be a positive influence in our world around us and to ultimately be reunited with God in heaven one day. The fourth question that every worldview should answers the question of morality. Where do we get our sense of right or wrong from? Well, obviously, the Biblical worldview goes back to the scripture. The scripture tells us in second Timothy 3, 16, that all Scripture has been given by inspiration of God. It’s God breathe and it’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. In other words, it’s instructions on how to live, right? And so the Bible becomes the framework, the filter, the set of glasses that are used to determine what’s right and wrong. In other worldviews, they have their own set of understanding of what right or wrong is for the naturalists, they may come to the conclusion that everything’s relative. It’s relative to the individual. It’s relative to the culture, or ultimately to who’s in power. And there’s all kinds of different ways that they, they look at the issue of morality. And again, in Islam you, they may come to the conclusion that you look through the Qur’an and try to determine what did Muhammad teach us? What are the other works that we can help to guide us and to determine what ultimately is right and wrong. How do we look at these issues? How do we determine how we should live? Your worldview will guide you to do this. Before we get to our last one. The last point, I’d like to ask you to consider this. One thing that’s very important with these five questions is that every worldview should be coherent. Another words, the answers to these questions should be coherent with each other. They shouldn’t be contradictory. One shouldn’t say one thing and it contradicts the other view of origin, for example, and identity. You can’t believe that life came here randomly and then all of a sudden give value to humans as the naturals does. We can, we can say humans have value, but what’s the real basis for it? What’s, Where do we get a sense of value from? Why should anyone view their life as valuable or important? When we’re just evolved piece of scum. That over time and chance has evolved into the uniqueness that we see in human beings. It should also be adequate. It should adequately answer each question. If you get to the conclusion of that idea and you say, worldview, that just doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t seem consistent and coherent. It’s probably a faulty worldview system. The last question is the question of destiny. What happens to us when we die? Think about that for a moment. What’s going to happen when you die? Where will you spend eternity? For the naturalists, they don’t care. This is all there is. When they’re dead, they’re buried, cremated. That’s it. For the Hindu or the Buddhist concerned about reincarnation and moving either from the Hindu perspective of the caste system or ultimately to reach the state of Nirvana. Going through this process of reincarnation to hopefully get to the place where they can be at peace. For the Muslim. They want to ultimately please Allah. Yet Allah is sovereign over destiny. And from that worldview perspective, no one can know for sure. Because ultimately all decides, you can do a lot of really good things. And you could be weighed out in the balances. But all is still in control. He has no son, he has no equal. There is no eternal salvation through Jesus. The worldview belief that God in Islam is different than the final worldview, all dress now as Christianity. God said in his word that he loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Is that you today? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? From the Biblical worldview perspective, the view that I hold, eternal life. Is it a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? That you, by faith, believe in Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. And that by repenting, turning from your sin and turning toward God. And Jesus is the only way to heaven. You accept Him as your Lord and Savior. These are the five questions that every worldview should answer. The question of origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny. And I hope you enjoy the rest of your studies. This week we’re going to be defining worldview. What is a worldview? Does everyone have a worldview, or is it just something that some, a few people have, maybe philosophers? So we will be defining that we’re going to be particularly looking at what is a biblical worldview? What does it mean to have a biblical worldview? Well, that’s the summary suggestion for this particular week, is let me just encourage you to as you go through whatever Simon she might have, make sure you answer the specific questions. A lot of times I see students who will they talk about what they want to talk about or they get caught up in their own story, but they don’t actually answer the question. So always make sure you answer the questions and I think you’ll find your grades will increase because of that. The Scripture for this scripture encouragement, if you will, for this particular week. Let me encourage you with John chapter 17, the Bible says, sanctify them with truth. Thy word is truth. And in Psalm 19, verse 11 says Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against the, you know, we hide things that are valuable to us. I’ve things my home that I put in a certain place, I hide it. Why? Because it has value. My prayer for each of us is that we would continue to hide God’s word in our heart. Why? Because of its value that we might‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ not sin against God.