I am a senior in high school, but last semester I took two classes, Math for Liberal Arts and Psychology, at Arapahoe Community College. Needless to say, I learned a lot. Not only about the math deemed necessary for a Liberal Arts degree, but also about myself and the world. So I'm putting these thoughts on paper, er... the internet, so that I can sort them out and perhaps share my experiences and new found thoughts with the rest of you.
To give you an idea of my background: I've been homeschooled since third grade and any of the co-ops or other programs I've been in have been Christian. So I've always been surrounded by the Christian worldview. BUT I'm knowledgeable about other worldviews, so don't go around thinking that I'm ignorant and sheltered or that I am forced to be a Christian because of my parents. Because I'm not and I would prefer it if you did not look down on me.
So the fact that God created the world and everything inside of it has been taught to me since birth. All my History and Science lessons have been based in this truth.
This brings me to the first thing I realized at Community College: Your worldview matters more than you might think. Like I said, Science has always been taught to me with an assumed Creationist perspective. It was foreign to hear Psychology taught with a basis of assumed Evolution. I didn't speak up during class because no one would pay attention to the 16 year old who doesn't know anything yet. However, nearly everything started out with "it evolved this way because...." and I wasn't sure what to do. Before this I never realized how big of a role worldview has on things. My professor started saying theories of why humans evolved to see color and I'm sitting there thinking about how amazing God was to create the brain so we can enjoy beauty. Because it's the foundation of your life and belief system, you had better be sure of your worldview's validity before you do anything else. It's how you filter information and arrange your lifestyle.
This other thing I realized may seem pretty obvious to a lot of you, but it was new to me for some reason. Non-Christians can actually be nicer than Christians. Like I said, kind of obvious, I know. But here's the thing. I believe that, without realizing it, Christians have painted a picture where every Christian is loving and holy and every non-Christian who has yet to see the love that Jesus provides is selfish, mean, crude, and promiscuous. This is simply not true. There were plenty of people in my Psych class of whom I am sure were not Christians. But they sat around and talked to everyone and tried their best to assist whomever they could because they were decent people.
Obviously, they are still sinners and are still just as basically evil as the rest of the world. But I have met some nasty Christians in my life and would have rather hung out with these non-Christians in a heartbeat.
These two things seem really obvious after I've laid them out like that, and they're both things that Christians say all the time. So I'm not sure why I didn't understand these before, and quite honestly I feel pretty dumb to have not realized these things before now. So I apologize for my naivety and ask that you do not judge me for this, for it's taken me a lot of courage to admit this....
But I was forced to think about this last semester at ACC. I'd like to know your thoughts on worldview and friendly non-Christians. Merry Christmas!
much love,
Amanda
