Christian Perspective of the Nature of Spirituality and Ethics Essay
Christian Perspective of the Nature of Spirituality and Ethics Essay
The Christian point of view is founded upon ideologies about God. As revealed in the Bible, there is only one God, who is three persons, each fully a God of one divine essence. This fact is well put in the Chalcedonian Creed. The Christian worldview is based on the scriptures in the Bible, the sacred word of God, through which He revealed Himself to the world.
It talks about creating the universe and all that is in it, the fall of man follows, and God’s redemption and restoration through Christ. The Holy Book teaches of God’s commands and love, brings to believers hope when faced with challenges. Therein Christians obtain their morals and ethics; healthcare professionals with this view cannot treat humans as nonliving objects. Yet, Christians view science as the best way of getting information about the world.
Postmodern relativism is a broad view keeping one from objective knowledge on the planet. Truth is assigned as a subjective preference and opinion that was invented, not discovered. Postmodern relativism claims that there is no objective truth on what is wrong or right (Wight, 2018). Fact is, therefore, tied to an individual, their culture, desires, and preferences. It depicts that is no genuine truth but the rather mere human invention that serves personal purposes. Postmodern relativism asserts that human lives have nothing to those of other living things and should also be equated to non-living objects.
Scientism and Main Arguments Against It.
Scientism is a philosophy on the limits of science, nature, and human knowledge. A school of thought about the extremes of experience that suggests the only and best way to know reality is through sciences (Moreland & Craig, 2017). Scientism is seen as the opposite of religion and indicates that all information can be pointed out through observables. That knowledge is a sum of experimental processes.
Many arguments disagree with scientism, and I will bring light to two of such. Science is with clear limits. Knowledge of right and wrong is not scientific as scientism would suggest. Science is not only limited but also among the many ways through which knowledge is acquired. The limits of science are depicted because it cannot dictate how to use its results. It can be used to develop processes, procedures, and structures, but it would not dictate whether or not to use them to impact the lives of human beings. Science can speak of many things as they are, it can empirically justify truths, but it could never give moral direction.
Scientism is self-refuting. Nicholas Rescher (2017) equated taking the scientism stance to distort rather than celebrating science. That any other claim to knowledge being either false or a mere opinion is in itself a falsehood, scientism disregards both religion and ethics; shrugging them off to only be acceptable in matters of belief and subjectivity would be the biggest contradiction.
Ultimate Reality
The worldview of ultimate reality varies from a person based on their beliefs. The ultimate truth of atheists is anchored in the material world. The physical universe is a product of existence and nothing beyond what science cannot measure with humans as the highest moral authority; no authority surpasses the human mind. Pantheists look to nature to obtain meaning and accrue spiritual forces to the soul.
The Christian worldview and to which I subscribe, speaks of God being personal that each individual can have a unique relationship with God. God created everything out of nothing, and we should be accountable to him (Light, & Block, 2017). Creation is nothing but a product of God’s creative power. God is beyond our understanding; we need a strong faith to appreciate his presence. God, the author of morals, gives direction in everything through His manual, the Bible, look up to Him for everything and ultimately eternal life.
The Nature of the Universe
The nature of the universe and ultimate reality are interweaved (Galanis-Kolintzas, 2020). Atheists claim that all objects in the world are made up of atoms. The world’s formation was purely a natural process that had nothing to do with God’s actions. One ends up wondering where did these atoms come from?
The nature of the universe probably results from a deity who afterward walked away wanting nothing to do with His creation, suggesting deism. I believe that the universe is vastly open, as was God’s intention to accommodate his design and endow each of it with freedom. God is personal, whereas existence includes both a physical and spiritual world. Human beings exist in the universe’s material reality, specifically the earth, but their spirits interact in a world of souls.
Human Being
The atheists view human beings purely from biological and chemical evolutionary processes without God’s alteration. Humans are considered as without a soul, and that God does not eternally uphold them. Due to their limited existence, it is difficult to assign worth and value to human beings. I believe, as the Christians do, that human beings are among God’s creation. God caused Human beings, and the instilled his image as depicted in the Bible; Genesis 1:26, KJV: “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Humans are the most superior of the creation as replicated by God, placing them above all results.
Knowledge
The question of knowledge comes down to three queries. What limits? Which standards? And by what measurements? Knowledge can be seen as a result of the science of sources originating both from divinity and physicality. Atheists subscribe to the limited view of experience being from human senses and reasoning. They, however, fail to address moral and ethical issues satisfactorily. Theists look to natural science and a deity through the intellectual capacity bequeathed to implore and fathom the universe.
Christians hold a firm belief in their ability to access knowledge as a gift from God (Gascoigne, 2020). In their eyes, science is with limits that cannot address moral and ethical issues and hence always refer to their manual, the Bible, God’s revelation to the creation. Knowledge, therefore, is information from reliable sources obtained throughout one’s life depending on one exposure and pursuit for it, not knowing any boundaries.
My Basis of Ethics
Ethics is the foundation of what is wrong and right and directly affects how to think and act. Ethics are moral values that bestow humanity, without which the world would be chaotic. Being without a deity for direction and guidance, one would only be left with a human reason as the atheists, a biased way of looking at things as subjective and reliant on individual and society. This line of thought wrongfully implies that ethics change with whoever holds them. Here one makes up morality as they go. Religious foundations provide for objective morality. There is a universal truth that applies to all human beings equally regardless of the different places and times.
The Purpose of My Existence
The purpose of existence is firmly rooted in the view of God’s character and nature. God blessed humans with different talents and abilities to use to meet their goals, thereby complementing each other and leaving in harmony. The ultimate purpose would be to work for the highest God, honor, worship, and obey God’s word.
The noble task of being the channel through which God can show himself and his qualities of integrity and love to people. Leading the ordinary life in the healthcare profession of nursing not for personal gain nor pleasure but for a higher purpose to benefit the soul and gain personal satisfaction. To help of God’s promises keeping in mind his greatest command of loving one’s neighbor as you love yourself.
Conclusion
Worldview directs one’s stance on the meaning of existence view of the universe’s nature and provides a purpose for one’s life. The Christian worldview is anchored upon God and justified by the Bible. The postmodern relativism assertion that there is no genuine truth, only human inventions for personal purposes, does not hold. To come up with my world view, I answered the questions on ultimate reality, the universe’s true nature, the definition of human being and knowledge, and my purpose. I believe I can best achieve my purpose by embracing the healthcare profession as a vessel of God’s love for his creation.
References for Christian Perspective of the Nature of Spirituality and Ethics Essay
- Galanis-Kolintzas, D. (2020). The universe and the limits of knowledge: Bohm’s notion of the Implicate Order of nature. Epistēmēs Metron Logos, 4, 32. https://doi.org/10.12681/eml.23778
- Gascoigne, J. (2020). Robert Louis Wilken: Liberty in the things of god: The Christian origins of religious freedom . New Haven: Yale university press, 2019; Pp. X + 236. The Journal of Religious History, 44(1), 128–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12640
- Light, C., & Block, W. E. (2017). Christianity, the free market, and libertarianism. Studia Humana, 6(4), 34–44. https://doi.org/10.1515/sh-2017-0025
- Moreland, J. P. (2017). Philosophical foundations for a Christian worldview (2nd ed.). Inter-Varsity Press.
- Rescher, N. (2017). Metaphysical Perspectives. University of Notre Dame Press.
- Wight, C. (2018). Post-truth, postmodernism and alternative facts. New Perspectives, 26(3), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/2336825×1802600302