Read Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes for Free Online Page A

“they cannot live” with the consequences of their own worldview, that they are “compelled to believe” in free will. Think of Principle #4 where we learned that adherents of reductionistic worldviews cannot even affirm their own claims unless they borrow Christianity’s high view of the human mind.
    What a powerful image of people caught in cognitive dissonance, reaching out to grab on to truths that their own worldviews deny—truths that only a biblical worldview logically supports.
    In Principle #5 we will explore several real-world examples of secular thinkers who are “free-loading” what they like best from Christianity. They find a biblical worldview so appealing that they keep borrowing from it (whether consciously or unconsciously). In admitting that they cannot live within their own worldview, they are showing that they are hungry for more fulfilling answers than their idols give them. And by free-loading from Christianity, they are showing that they need what only Christianity can offer.
    The five principles derived from Romans 1 build a powerful case to show that idol-based worldviews fail to give adequate answers to the basic questions all people must answer. At the same time, the five principles demonstrate that Christianity provides better answers—answers that fit the real world and are internally coherent. Because a biblical worldview starts with a transcendent Creator, it does not deify anything in creation. Therefore it does not need to ramrod everything into a limited set of categories derived from one part of the cosmic order. Christianity liberates us from any life-denying reductionism that dishonors and debases humanity. It affirms the high dignity of humans as full persons made in the image of a personal God.
    No wonder Paul proclaims that he is “not ashamed” of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). Christianity has greater explanatory power than any other worldview or religion. It fits the data of general revelation better. And it leads to a more humane and liberating view of the human person.
    At School, At Work
    The five principles of Paul’s apologetics training manual can be applied in the classroom, in the workplace, or in conversations with neighbors over the backyard fence. To give you practice, in the rest of Finding Truth we will apply the principles to today’s most widespread philosophies. For example, materialism is not so much a single philosophy as a family of interrelated theories. Consider how it permeates just one field: psychology. Leading thinkers such as Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, Erich Fromm, and Albert Ellis proposed quite different theories. Yet they were all committed to materialism and atheism. Thus when you reveal the flaws in materialism, you discredit not just one philosophy but an entire family of materialist theories.
    Because philosophies cluster in families, learning to analyze them is easier than you might have thought before you picked up Finding Truth .
    Some worldview families are so widespread that we will examine them more than once. Each time, however, we will be advancing to the next strategic principle and learning a new skill. Finding Truth is not designed to teach the tenets of various worldviews. Instead the goal is to master the skills that will enable you to cut to the heart of any set of ideas, using the most common worldviews merely to illustrate at each step of the way.
    Liberated Minds
    Learning critical thinking is important not only for speaking to people outside the church but also for educating people on the inside . They often absorb ideas from the cultural atmosphere and thus need help liberating their minds from secular assumptions.
    In the hallway of a Christian college where I was teaching, I noticed a student reading a book on postmodernism. “What are you learning?” I asked.
    “It’s showing me myself!” the student said. “I finally understand why I think the way I do.” 33 He had absorbed elements of postmodernism