Have you ever been in a discussion with someone about a big issue, and found yourself frustrated that, try as you might, you just can’t come around to seeing eye-to-eye?  It’s been my experience that most people will just keep throwing more and more information at the other person, assuming that if they just had all the information, they’d “see the light.”  What they don’t realize is that different sets of fact or different worldviews (or both) can create a disconnect.

Our Worldview, Our Filter

Because your worldview is a basic filter for how you see the world, most of us default to assuming everyone else sees it the same way.  We assume the things that matter to us matter to everyone else.  We assume our priorities are their priorities.

(Personality, incidentally, can do the same thing: we assume everyone approaches life from the same perspective.)

So we fall into the trap of expecting that other people are going to make their decisions and draw their conclusions based on our presuppositions.

Different Facts? Or Different Worldviews?

But it doesn’t work that way.  Another person might arrive at a different conclusion or make a different decision from you because he doesn’t have access to the same set of facts as you, or because he has a different worldview.

We might as well keep it interesting, so let’s use a vaccine example.  Let’s say you object to the MMR vaccine on ethical grounds.  Your friend is in favor of it.

Because this is important to you, you attempt to convince him.  You provide links to research about fetal cell lines and vaccine development.  You point out that fetal cell lines are not all as old as the 60s.  You tell him that there are no alternative versions of the vaccine available, made without fetal cell lines.  Nothing makes a difference.

Why?  The disconnect isn’t that your friend doesn’t know these things.  The difference is that you and your friend have different worldviews with regard to the ethics of fetal tissue research.

You believe that the use of any drugs or biologicals developed with the use of fetal cell lines is immoral; your friend believes they’re fine as long as they don’t use tissue directly derived from a living baby.  As long as your worldviews still disagree, all the facts in the world won’t move you onto the same page.

You may both have all the same information, but you’re filtering it through an entirely different set of assumptions.

One More Example

Just to drive the point home, let’s look at one other example.

You’re adamant about the importance of voting.  Your friend, however, refuses to get out and vote.  This frustrates you, and you can’t understand why your friend would be so…selfish, apathetic, lazy…you’re not sure what character flaw is driving him, but you know it must be some kind of character deficiency, because voting is important, so that’s the only thing that makes sense.  To you.

But your friend doesn’t think voting is important.

Your friend believes that engagement in politics is a worldly entanglement that Christians should not be part of.  He’s morally opposed voting.  What you assume to be a character deficiency is actually a demonstration of strong character…readily visible when viewed through the filter of the worldview he used to make the choice.

Because the two of you filter the idea of voting through very different worldviews, you arrive at very different conclusions — actually making completely opposite choices — out of the very same desire to do the right thing and glorify God.

What, Then?

When Christians are discussing issues with non-Christians there’s only so much we can do.  We already know we don’t have a shared worldview.  You may be able to appeal to a shared standard (e.g. if you and your friend both believe in the Constitution as the basis of American politics, then you can appeal to the Constitution for some things) or to universal morality.  But if the friend doesn’t claim to have a shared standard, then you might not be able to convince him to see an issue your way.

Among Christians, the matter gets more complicated.  We Christians ought to have a biblical worldview.  We ought to all have a shared standard by which to measure truth.

Unfortunately, we don’t.

Attempting to persuade another believer that his worldview is not consistent with Scripture can be completely appropriate.  But you first have to recognize that you’re dealing with a difference of worldviews, not (just) a different body of information.