If pro-abortionists want to commit intellectual suicide and deny scientific facts, that's their problem. But there's no reason a civilized society should fund their anti-scientific outlook - or accept its inhumane consequences. Nancy Pearcey More Quotes by Nancy Pearcey More Quotes From Nancy Pearcey When people commit themselves to a certain vision of reality, it becomes their ultimate explainer. It serves to interpret the universe for them, to guide their moral decisions, to give meaning and purpose to life, and all the other functions normally associated with a religion. Nancy Pearcey giving reality people The most fundamental decision we all face over the course of our lives is what we will recognize as the ultimate reality, the uncaused source and cause of our existence. Everything else in our worldview depends on that initial decision. The Bible speaks of this foundational choice in terms of who or what we worship. We must all answer the challenge Joshua issued to the Israelites as they were poised to enter the Promised Land: "Choose this day whom you will serve" (Josh. 24:15). Nancy Pearcey land choices reality Christian adults need to think about talking to our own children as a form of cross-cultural missions. Cultural change happens so quickly that teens are exposed to ideas and worldviews very different from those of previous generations. Nancy Pearcey christian children thinking Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview. Nancy Pearcey derivatives stem morality America faces a fundamental choice: either the blessings of liberty or the servitude of liberalism. In the political struggle for survival, one or the other is headed for extinction. Nancy Pearcey struggle blessing america Beginning under the Roman Empire, intellectual leadership in the West had been provided by Christianity. In the middle ages, who invented the first universities - in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge? The church. Nancy Pearcey cambridge-university paris oxford I discovered that Christianity does have the resources to meet the challenges posed by competing worldviews after all. Nancy Pearcey christianity challenges doe An idol is not necessarily something concrete, like a golden calf. It can also be something abstract, like matter. Is matter part of the created order? Sure it is. So the philosophy of materialism qualifies as an idol in the biblical sense. Nancy Pearcey biblical philosophy order Public education grants secular worldviews an exclusive monopoly in the classroom. Nancy Pearcey worldview classroom monopoly As with every aspect of our sanctification, the renewal of the mind may be painful and difficult. It requires hard work and discipline, inspired by a sacrificial love for Christ and a burning desire to build up His body, the Church. Developing a Christian worldview means submitting our entire self to God, in an act of devotion and service to Him. Nancy Pearcey hard-work christian mean The whole point of building theoretical systems is to explain what humans know by pre-theoretical experience. That is the starting point for any philosophy. That is the data it seeks to explain. If it fails to explain the data of experience, then it has failed the test. It has been falsified. Nancy Pearcey data tests philosophy The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate. Nancy Pearcey arena tolerance mean Clearly, Enlightenment thinkers were seeking a God substitute. Nancy Pearcey thinker enlightenment substitutes Mitchell claimed that her materialist view leads to “humbleness.” But it is not humbling; it is dehumanizing. It essentially reduces humans to robots. Nancy Pearcey humbleness robots views 'Biblical worldview'. The term means literally a 'view of the world', a biblically informed perspective on all of reality. A worldview is like a mental map that tells you how to navigate the world effectively. It is the imprint of God's objective truth on our inner life. Nancy Pearcey biblical mean reality Only a God of love is fully personal. Thus the Trinity is crucial for maintaining a fully personal concept of God. As theologian Robert Letham writes, “Only a God who is triune can be personal.... A solitary monad cannot love and, since it cannot love, neither can it be a person.” Therefore it “has no way to explain or even to maintain human personhood. Nancy Pearcey writing love-is way But things that are intrinsically good can also become idols-if we allow them to take over any of God's functions in our lives. Nancy Pearcey our-lives function idols The loss of objectivity in moral thought does not lead to liberation. It leads to oppression. Secular ideologies preach liberty, but they practice tyranny. Nancy Pearcey objectivity practice loss Yet church youth groups rarely teach apologetics, majoring instead on games and goodies. Nancy Pearcey groups church games Materialists try to live in the lower story NON-MATERIAL WORLD Subjective, Superstitious, Mental Constructs MATERIAL WORLD Objective, Scientific, Knowable Facts Nancy Pearcey stories trying world
