Your Worldview - Are Your Beliefs Consistent with Your Worldview?
What do people believe and why? If one is rational and a thinking person, one must be open to the fact that one's beliefs may be wrong. One must be able realistically examine the evidence that contradicts one's beliefs. This principle applies to both believers and skeptics alike. Does one's beliefs have an explanation of the origin of the universe and the origin of life on earth. Has one looked at the evidance that Jesus Christ was the God who created the universe and life in it. If you are ready to consider the possibility that your beliefs might be wrong, and look directly at the evidence, please see the Evidence for the God of the Bible page and the Is Christianity True? page. If feel it is important for skeptics to recognize that not all their beliefs are based upon physical evidence, and are may not even be consistent with their own worldview.
Do skeptics have beliefs?
Most skeptics take pride in their intellectual ability and like to think that they have no "beliefs." However, modern science has shown us that everyone has beliefs, since this is how our brains work (Atheistic materialism worldview is a belief system). We would like to think that everything we believe is based upon evidence and logic, this is simply not true. In fact, we become emotionally bound to our worldview, so much so that worldviews are difficult to change. Since I am asking you to consider a worldview change, I am going to ask you to let go of your emotional attachment to your worldview and consider the evidence apart from it.
The skeptical worldview
The first principle is that all beliefs should be based upon observational evidence. Unlike theists, who base some of their beliefs on religious writings, skeptics must rely completely upon physical evidence. The second principle is that skeptics must be logically consistent at all times. In other words, a skeptic may not believe something to be true if it is contradicted by observational evidence. Most skeptics who are atheists believe that all phenomena have naturalistic causes. This belief is based upon the observation of our world, in which cause and effect are observed on a daily basis, with rare exception, if at all. One must ask the question, "Just because cause and effect overwhelmingly operate in our universe, does this mean that supernatural events never occur?" Even in the Bible, which claims to be a record of God's supernatural actions, over 90% of what is described is purely naturalistic. So, even the Bible recognizes that the vast majority of events that occur in the universe have a natural cause. However, one who insists that supernatural events never occur is expressing a belief that can never be fully confirmed. To be truly open-minded, one must recognize the possibility that supernatural events do occur.
Problem with the skeptical worldview
The one data to examine is the origin of the universe as this the starting point for the history of the universe. Before the 20th century, atheists assumed that the universe was eternal, a concept called the Steady State universe. However, beginning with Einstein's theory of general relativity, and early observational evidence, it became apparent that the universe was expanding. (Hubble, See Space-time page) This revealed that the universe was merely billions of years old. The data eventually led to the "Big Bang" theory (also called the Creation event and the Initial singularity), which is virtually universally accepted by modern day cosmologist. Attempts to get around the idea that the universe had a beginning have all met with observational difficulties. (see Multiverse page). The idea that the universe could have gone through an infinite number of births and deaths (the oscillating universe theory) was shown to be false on the basis of the lack of amount of matter within the universe, and the fact that any collapse would have led to a "Big Crunch" instead of another Big Bang. So, we have come to realize that the universe first began to exist 13.7 billion years ago. Atheists are left with a dilemma, since their worldview requires that all things that begin to exist must have a cause. So, logic requires the admission that the universe had a cause. Virtually all atheists say that this cause was some natural phenomenon. It is also possible that the cause of the universe was a supernatural intelligence (i.e., God). However, there is no direct observational evidence for either belief. Those who are "strong atheists" (not working out in the gym, but having a belief that no god exists) have just violated one of the main rules of atheism - that all beliefs are based upon observational evidence. So, any atheist who denies the possible existence of God violates his own worldview.
The problem actually gets worse for the atheist. The physical laws of the universe fall within very narrow ranges in order for life (or even matter) to exist, suggesting some level of design (See Anthropic Principle page). The observational evidence actually strongly leans toward the existence of God, contradicting strong atheism. The prospect of finding a naturalistic cause for the origin of the universe is bleak at best, since the laws of physics indicate that we will never be able escape the bounds of our universe to even attempt to look for the cause of the universe.
Conclusion
A skeptic or atheist is governed by two main principles: 1) all beliefs must be supported by observational evidence, and 2) beliefs that contradict observational evidence cannot be tolerated. However, strong atheism states that there is no god, even though observational evidence indicates that the universe has a cause that cannot be detected observationally. So, despite the lack of observational evidence for a naturalistic cause for the universe, the strong atheist believes that the universe has a naturalistic cause and that there is no god, contradicting the tenet that all beliefs should be based upon observational evidence.
See Is God Real: The Evidence for God's Existence page and Is Christianity True page
Also see Space-Time page
Also see Worldviews page
Ref
https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/blog_channel/what-in-the-world-is-a-worldview
https://reasons.org/explore/publications/connections/what-in-the-world-is-a-worldview
https://reasons.org/explore/publications/reasons-newsletter/god-of-the-gaps-or-best-explanation
A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test by Kenneth Richard Samples