âThree friends once went to a nature preserve in the African Serengeti and experienced the majestic beauty and diversity of native African wildlifeâzebra, elephant, gazelle, lion, and rhinoceros. Each was awestruck by the diversity of creatures observed. The first friend, John Luther, commented boldly: âThe Lord God has definitely created an amazing array of creatures that sing his praises and declare his glory to the ends of the earth, has he not?â The second friend, Charles Dawkins, immediately responded: âAn amazing array of creatures, to be sure. But you err, my good man, in ascribing their existence to a Creator. No, these incredible animals are the result of the unguided, purposeless combination of random mutation and natural selection. We too are the product of a natural evolutionary process. Indeed, we are no different from the creatures that we see.â The third friend, Shirley Chopra, serenely replied: âI pray you both would be enlightened to the full reality disclosed by our brothers and sisters on the nature preserve. For they too bear the same spark of divinity that lies within you and me. Do you not sense them calling to you, seeking to communicate with your spirit? We are all potential gods and goddesses; we just need to awaken to our heightened state and take hold of the possibilities that lie before us.â The three friends see the same animals within the same nature preserve. Thus, they experience the same objective truth. Nevertheless, due to their vastly different perspectives, the three friends see different things. Why? Simply put, John, Charles, and Shirley are experiencing a clash of worldviews. A worldview, as we will define it, is the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it. The three safari friends wear different worldview glasses; thus, although they see the same thing, they actually see the world and their place within it very differently.â
â An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's Perspective in a Pluralistic World by Tawa J Anderson, W. Michael Clark, et al.
