The constant bombardment of anti-Christian messages by the news media, academia, and the music and entertainment industries entices people to mix elements of different worldviews into new, often incompatible, combinations--buffet style.  Unfortunately, such experimentation can cause serious mental and emotional “indigestion” in the mind just as food poisoning can cause in the body.  Both can even be fatal, spiritually or physically respectively.

Section 2 of this book will contrast and compare seven dominant worldviews with the Christian worldview.   They are listed in a previous chapter, "Worldviews in Conflict." The first three, Christian Theism, Deism and Polytheism, have a belief in one or more supernatural beings with the qualities of a person or persons. The last five depict the supernatural as either non-existent, unknowable, an impersonal force or as Satan himself.  While the influence of any of these rivals cannot be underestimated, Materialism (the focus of this chapter) and New Age currently have the strongest impact on our nation.

Materialism is the belief that matter and material processes are the sole constituents of reality.  It's assumptions form the basis of an anti-God worldview that has many tentacles.*  Materialism is the first worldview to be contrasted with Christianity because of its cancerous impact on American life and values. Indeed, it is an invasive and aggressive contradiction to America’s Christian heritage. Its proponents seek nothing less than to replace our foundational belief in the Supreme God of the Bible with belief in Man as supreme--the de facto belief of Secular Humanism.  One says "In God we trust;" the other says "In Man we trust."  It is the introduction of the latter worldview that has ignited the current "culture war" which  threatens America's existence as a free God-fearing society.

It is a worldview with the following elements and principles: (Wikipedia)

(1) Need to test beliefs--a conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith.
(2) Reason, evidence, scientific method--a commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions.
(3) Fulfillment, growth, creativity--a primary concern with fulfillment, growth, and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general.
(4) Search for truth--a constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it.
(5) This life--a concern for this life and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements and the outlooks of those who differ from us.
(6) Ethics--a search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility.
(7) Building a better world--a conviction that with reason, an open exchange of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children.

Chart 3 below provides a simplified overview in prose form that highlights the sharp contrast between the Christian Worldview and the Materialistic Worldview. (Please note: Chart numbers throughout Section 2 are sequential, beginning with the first chapter, "Discovering Your Worldview".)

Obviously the contrast between these two worldviews is so enormous that both cannot be true.  In order to highlight key differences, the next chapter will present a point by point analysis of these two worldviews by using the questions first posed in the previous chapter, Discovering Your Worldview, Chart 1. While you can choose either view for yourself, try solving the puzzle of which choice is safest and why.