My Personal Background and Experience on Worldview
My worldview is that the truth of the Bible supersedes that of the
sciences but on topics unaddressed by the Bible, scientific statements
that are not contradictory to the Bible are acceptable if they are
consistent and can logically supplement the truth of the Bible. While I was
studying mathematics as an undergraduate, my proclivity for logical
thinking with my overconfidence in my ability to reason resulted in my
favoring science over faith. As I continued my studies, I eventually
adopted anti-religious beliefs, which were pervasive among those in
mathematics and the sciences. The abandonment of faith led to my
nihilism. After waking up in a hospital from a suicide attempt, I confessed I
was misguided by my pride. I acknowledged my limited knowledge and
errant thinking. With humility and in brokenness, I returned to God.
My experience informs my view of integration of theology and
psychology. Prior to my existential crisis, my preference for the objectivity
of mathematics and the sciences was influenced by my openness to ideas
and my tendency to question conventional wisdom. As I discovered, there
are dangers to applying an object-oriented “objective” version of
psychology onto people. Regarding this version of psychology, Stahlman
(2020) points out and warns, “many thought that the human soul was not
suitable for empirical examination, so it was abandoned for this
psychological research. As a result, psychology lost its
philosophical/theological foundation and…has had mostly negative
results, neither making humanity more sane nor more happy, while
resulting in a society that increasingly seems consumed by chaos” (p. 1).
After experiencing the consequence of over-reliance on the sciences, I will
not elevate psychology above the truth of the Bible. I believe God is
omniscient and I know humans are limited in their understanding, which is
why “[m]ost theologians… emphasized the priority of faith over reason,
since faith comes from God via revelation, and philosophy from the
reasoning of fallen human beings” (Entwistle, 2015, p. 23). At the same
time, I do not deny the sciences altogether. I accept psychology as
subordinate to and filtered through the truth of theology.
References
Entwistle, D. N. (2015).Integrative approaches to psychology and
Christianity: An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical
foundations, and models of integration(3rd ed.). Wipf and Stock
Publishers.
Stahlman, M. (2020). The inner senses and human
engineering.Dianoetikon: A Practical Journal,1(2000), 1-
26.http://digitallife.center/index.php/journal/vol-1-no-1-ecology-of-the-
inner-senses
