The other day I pulled up behind a car that contained a litany of bumper stickers expressing their view about all sorts of things.  They were not hiding their worldview (or at least parts of it). But, as might be expected, this individual apparently took very little time to consider whether the content of these stickers made sense or even agreed with one another. So, I decided it would be interesting to evaluate this person’s “bumper sticker worldview.”

Since the Christian worldview is largely on the defensive these days, it is easy to forget that non-Christians also have a worldview.  They are not neutral or undecided about the nature of reality, but have a network of beliefs that is designed to explained the way the world works, or more importantly, the way they think it ought to work.

Some non-Christians may not even realize they have a worldview, and even those who know they have one rarely put all their intellectual cards on the table.  You have to sniff around a bit to determine what some people really believe.

But then, in other situations, people just put their worldview out there for all to see.  The other day I pulled up behind a car that contained a litany of bumper stickers expressing their view about all sorts of things.  They were not hiding their worldview (or at least parts of it).

But, as might be expected, this individual apparently took very little time to consider whether the content of these stickers made sense or even agreed with one another. So, I decided it would be interesting to evaluate this person’s “bumper sticker worldview.”

1.”Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice.”  This is a popular bumper sticker out there for the pro-choice crowd. In order to allay fears that they may be anti-child (gee, what might give people that impression?) they insist you can be for abortion and for children.  Needless to say, the recent Planned Parenthood videos have exposed the tragedy of this logic.  You can’t say your pro-child when you kill babies in the womb and sell their parts.  The abortion movement is not pro-child, but pro-self. It puts the pleasures and conveniences of the individual above all else.

2. “Compassion is the radicalism of our time–the Dalai Lama.”  If compassion is highly valued by this individual, then they ought to extend some to babies in the womb.  How can you call for compassion, and then, on the same bumper, turn around and advocate for abortion?  Utterly incoherent.  Moreover, this tacit endorsement of Buddhism (Dalai Lama) raises issues.  Buddhism, as a monistic and pantheistic worldview, has no basis to account for good and evil in the world.  If so, then why care about compassion in the first place?  On a monistic/pantheistic worldview, why does it matter what one person does to another?

3. “Coexist.”  This bumper sticker is everywhere these days. If this bumper sticker simply means that all religions should find a way to get along without trying to destroy the other, then one might have little objection to it.  But often this sticker is used to suggest that all these religions are essentially the same, or that no one religion could be true.

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