James W. Sire digs deeper into Micheal Hickerson‘s Worldview question:
How can we find common ground when someone has a radically different worldview from our own?
In the previous blog post, I argued that as Christians we know that we share a common ground with all people in that we are all created in the image of God to live in a universe created by a loving, righteous, infinite-personal God. I also said that we agree to and use the universal laws of logic (A is A; A is not not-A; and B is either A or not- A). I called this our common ontological ground and minimally common epistemological ground.
But a fully common ground for our communication and our understanding of each other and the world around us requires more than these necessary laws of thought. It requires a common set of basic assumptions. Here are some of them: This universe in which we live has a determinate (not necessarily determined) objective existence other than ourselves and our thoughts (Theists and naturalists agree; Hindus and some Western philosophies deny this). Each of us is one person who is different from other persons and other things in the universe (a notion held by theists, deists and naturalists, but not by Hindus, Buddhists or New Agers). Our minds are capable of knowing something about who we are and what the universe is; we can trust our reason, though we recognize that it has limits in both its scope and its capacity (Theism, deism, naturalism agree; Hinduism and Buddhism reject this). There is a God who is Infinite and Personal, the good Creator of the universe and the one to whom we are responsible (Theists agree; naturalists, New Agers, Hindus, Buddhists disagree). Other necessary assumptions concern morality; the meaning, if any, of the flow of history; the meaning and value, if any, of individual human lives. All of these are understood in different and contradictory ways. Moreover there are different versions of theism — Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to name the big three.
Is there any common ground among these many worldviews, i.e., ground basic enough to undergird convincing arguments for the truth of the Christian faith? [Read more…] about Jim Sire on “Finding common ground with someone radically different.” Part II