Worldview Expert Offers Advice: Capture Ideas Before They Capture You
by Jim Brown
November 29, 2004
(AgapePress) - An expert on worldview analysis told a recent Washington education conference that Christians need to be ready to "demolish" arguments put forth by proponents of secular humanism and naturalistic science.Dr. David Noebel is the president of Summit Ministries, which boasts a two-week program designed to prepare Christian teenagers to survive universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Baylor. The former professor and college president says it is tragic that Christian young people on college campuses do not see the ongoing struggle and battle for their minds.
"Ideas will either capture you, or you will capture them," Noebel told the conference attendees. "We contend that it's better for the student to capture the idea instead of letting the ideas of Marx and Darwin and Freud...capture them -- which is exactly what's going on right now because our young people [are] defenseless. They're literally defenseless."
Noebel, an expert on the decline of spirituality in Western civilization, criticizes humanists who reject the idea of a biblical flood during the time of Noah. He says it is amazing that even though most of the Earth is water, most secular scientists and professors do not believe in the great flood.
"But now we find a flood on Mars? Does that ring?" he asked. "We're looking for water on Mars; we can't find water on Mars, but now we're told that there's water on Mars -- but [scientists say] there's no flood on the Earth, even though the Earth is 75 percent water. You figure that one out."
And he offered this insight. "Don't kid yourself. The naturalistic, scientific community is scared to death of Christianity. Their science is based on how it will affect us and them in return."
The Summit Ministries founder made his remarks at the Alliance for the Separation of School State conference in Washington, DC, in late November. Noebel is author of Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth. The book documents the various worldviews vying for the hearts and minds of students in secular, humanist schools.
