Unbelief

National Test Reveals Christian Students Lack A Biblical Worldview
 
A worldview is the lenses, glasses, framework or grid through which you look at the world and every issue and aspect of life. In America, the two predominant worldviews are either a secular humanist worldview or a Biblical Christian worldview. Your worldview is the foundation of your ideas and values and your ideas and values is the foundation of your conduct.
 
Since 1988, the Nehemiah Institute has given the PEERS test to thousands of teenagers and adults in order to determine their worldview. The PEERS test determines an individual's worldview in five key areas: Politics, economics, education, religion and social issues. Results from each category are classified into one of four major worldview philosophies: Christian Theism, Moderate Christian, Secular Humanism, and Socialism.
 
From 1988-2000, average scores of Christian school students dropped by 30.3%. Results of evangelical family students in public schools dropped 36.8%
 
Christian students attending public schools now regularly score in the lower half of secular humanism, headed toward a socialistic worldview. Students in typical Christian schools score as a secular humanist. However, the average Christian school student is just a few points away from having a moderate Christian worldview.
 
The Churched Youth Survey revealed the following:
- Only 44% asserted that humans are capable of grasping the meaning of truth
 
- 57% could not even say that an objective standard of truth exists.

- 15% disagreed with the statement: "What is right for one person in a given situation might not be right for another person who encounters the same situation."
 
- 85% are likely to reason "just because it's wrong for you doesn't mean its wrong for me."
 
- Only 29% disagreed with the statement: "When it comes to matters of ethics, truth means different things to different people; no one can be absolutely positive they have the truth."

- Only 38% disagreed with the statement: "Nothing can be known for certain except the things that you experience in your life."
 
- 45% could not disagree with the statement: "Everything in life is negotiable."
 
As I ponder the troubling statistics provide by the Nehemiah Institute, I am more determined than ever to labor to train my children in a comprehensive worldview so that they will never retreat from the truth of Christianity and thus have no regrets when entering eternity (Worldview Weekend, Brannon S. Howse, 2003).
 
[TBC: Since this survey was taken in 2003, one wonders how the statistics might have changed.]