Worldviews, Part 3
Well, if you’re still with me on this topic, I guess I didn’t totally alienate you with the last post. I can only assume that Worldviews, Part 2, set off some serious cognitive dissonance for some people.
Here in Part 3, I’d like to detail some of the results of that recent American Worldview Inventory 2022. However, in some cases, I’ll be wording the results a bit differently. They seemed to use a lot a double negatives which made things confusing. Also, the similarity of the self-identified Christian parents to the overall group is partly because 67% of the parents identified as Christians. This majority helps skew the overall results. Personally, I’d like to see how the Christian parents compared to the non-Christian parents, but that data hasn’t been presented.
So, with that in mind, let’s look at some of their results. They divided their questions/results into six groups: 1)Bible, Truth, and Morals, 2)Lifestyle Choices, 3)The Trinity, 4) Family, Marriage, Children, 5)Reality and Existence, and 6)Sin and Salvation. Again, this survey went to parents of pre-teens (under 13). Here’s a sampling of the results:
Bible, Truth, and Morals
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
The Bible is your primary source of moral guidance |
24% |
33% |
|
Moral absolutes do exist |
26% |
24% |
|
God is the basis of truth, as revealed through the Bible |
29% |
38% |
|
The Bible holds the accurate words of God |
42% |
55% |
|
Accept that there is objective moral truth, but it is always personal and subjective |
35% |
38% |
Lifestyle Choices
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
Accumulated wealth is entrusted to us by God to manage for His purposes |
10% |
14% |
|
Success is consistent obedience to God |
15% |
21% |
|
Believe that karma affects your life |
81% |
81% |
|
Willing to try anything once |
73% |
72% |
|
Accept that having any faith matters more than which faith |
73% |
77% |
|
Purpose of life is to know, love, and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul |
28% |
37% |
|
Intentionally declaring tax deductions you know you’re not eligible for is morally unacceptable |
49% |
52% |
The Trinity
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
Agree that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, and not just a symbol of God’s power, presence, and purity |
27% |
24% |
|
Believe that when Jesus lived on earth, He committed sins just like other people |
65% |
67% |
|
God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect, and just Creator of the universe who rules that universe today |
40% |
51% |
Family, Marriage, Children
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
Unmarried couple having sexual relations with each other because they love each other and expect to get married is morally unacceptable |
26% |
29% |
|
Marriage of one man to one woman is God’s plan for humanity, across all cultures |
33% |
42% |
|
The Bible is ambiguous about abortion |
35% |
35% |
|
Having an abortion to avoid the personal hardships of raising the child is morally unacceptable |
46% |
51% |
Reality and Existence
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
Human life is sacred |
26% |
31% |
|
Believe in evolution rather than God’s creation |
33% |
39% |
|
The universe and everything in it has been designed, created, and sustained by God |
44% |
57% |
|
Believe the universe came into existence with divine assistance |
45% |
53% |
Sin and Salvation
|
Belief/Behavior |
All Parents |
Self-identified Christian Parents |
|
People are born into sin and can only be saved from its consequences by Jesus Christ |
20% |
28% |
|
When you die, you will go to Heaven but only because you have confessed your sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior |
24% |
33% |
|
Believe that someone who is generally good or does enough good things for others will earn a place in heaven |
71% |
73% |
|
Believe that reincarnation is a real possibility |
66% |
64% |
Based upon these results, a lot of self-identifying “Christians” will be in for a rude awakening come Judgment Day. In fact, while I previously mentioned that only 2% of preteen parents hold a Biblical worldview, additional data collected by the CRC show that only 6% of ALL U.S. adults hold such a worldview.
So, I’ll ask again. Where do you stand? How would you respond to these questions? If it’s been a while since you dusted off that Bible and read it, maybe now would be a good time to do so. The return of Christ is not far off.