Twentieth Anniversary of 9/11 and Why World Views Matter
Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. We will never forget the 2,977 souls taken from us that day nor the acts of evil that perpetrated them. For most of us it is a yearly remembrance, but those who lost a loved one, it is the empty chair around the dinner table, that vacant spot next to you in bed, or wondering what your mom or dad would think and asking yourself, "Do you think they would be proud of me?" It is a lingering emptiness that never will be requited in this world.
For the last 2000 thousand years western civilization has flourished under the influence of the Christian worldview. The fact that this worldview recognizes a transcendent truth that is absolute, has enabled science, mathematics and the arts to flourish. Christians started the first hospitals, orphanages and universities and this worldview has enabled many advances in medicine and science. Other truth's contained in this worldview are that we live in a fallen world, man is intrinsically sinful, however all men are created in the image of God and therefore have dignity and self worth. This worldview allows for the existence of good and evil and the need for a Savior, namely Jesus Christ. So what happened? Well along came "The Enlightenment" whose philosophy did not recognize absolute truth, man being the center of all things, can use his reasoning and intellect to discover any truth that is knowable. No longer was God necessary to be the arbiter of truth, religion just got in the way. This philosophy has wormed its way gradually into the Academy and the ruling elites that are the products of it. They don't acknowledge the existence of evil and man's true nature.
We are in a battle of worldviews. To put it simply it is the west against the rest. We are and have been at war with the Radical Islam's worldview. According to them the world is divided into two parts, Islam and those who must be conquered, subjugated and forced to live under Shariah Law. It is a religion of conquest. There is no appeasing or reasoning with these folks. A plane load of cash left on the tarmac of a airport is a foolish way to persuade them to stop refining uranium, they will take the cash and do what they want to do anyway, they will just have more money to accomplish their goal. In America we are divided and the Christian worldview is being pushed aside, much to our detriment. Radical Islam will have us for lunch if we continue to try appease and please them. What motivates them is a Hellfire missile blowing up their fearless leader's Toyota pickup truck, with him in it. That's why Worldviews matter.
As I listen to the bell toll as it echoes across the 911 Memorial plaza, along with the names of those who died there, I am reminded of the last two lines of a John Donnes poem, "For Whom the Bell Tolls, It tolls for thee." Each person that died that day tore a hole in America and in all of our hearts. May God bless them, their loved ones they left behind and God bless America.