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Vision Logo Circle

A New Definition of WEIRD Pt 1

by | Sat, Mar 23 2019

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1 Corinthians 1:20-29, ‘Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom didn’t come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.’

There are many things in the Bible that baffle and mystify we who live in the West and this is primarily a result of cultural differences and an ignorance of the culture from which the Bible was penned; from simple details to important differences in worldview. It’s not surprising then that after thousands of years of time, cultural and civilisation changes that have separated us from that time in history, that misunderstand such a lot of it.

A paper was published in the psychology world that may reveal why the Bible is so puzzling to so many in the West.

After comparing diverse cultural attitudes from all around the world, researchers have concluded that the modern western worldview is not normal at all, in fact it’s unique in its difference when compared to others.

Westerners think very analytically. Our culture is also very secular and places a strong emphasis on individual rights and freedoms. Much of the world is far less secular and sees people principally as members of groups as in families, tribes, clans and nations and with this comes very strong claims to loyalty. Our society is very much akin to the Greek mindset which is quite individualistic, philosophical and analytical, whereas the rest of the world is more social, communal and practical.

Is it possible that our culture, that is Western culture, that has this “uniqueness” is also a barrier to relating to the Biblical worldview?

Listen to this statement from Eugene Nida, a Bible translation expert who has worked in very diverse cultures all around the globe:

“If one were to make a comparison of the culture traits of the Bible with those of all the existing cultures of today…one would find that in certain respects the Bible is surprisingly closer to many of them than to the technological culture of the western world. It is this “western” culture that is the aberrant one in the world. And it is precisely in the western world, and in the growing number of persons in other parts of the world, that the Scriptures have seemingly the least ready acceptance.”

Eugene Nida appears to agree with the social scientists in that it’s not that the Bible is culturally “odd,” but rather we in the West are culturally odd. Compared to the rest of the world and all other cultures, we’re absolutely weird.

Psychologists have coined the acronym “WEIRD” for the aspects of our culture (particularly in the university world) that separate it most from the rest of humanity, particularly in voting countries:

W        –           Western

E          –           Educated

I           –           Industrialised

R         –           Rich

D         –           Democratic

It’s particularly interesting then, that these cultural traits of the West often set us apart from the Biblical world and to demonstrate what this means, let me contrast the West’s WEIRD worldview against the Biblical worldview.

Western and Educated:

We’ve learned to formulate ideas according to the influence of ancient Greek culture rather than the Hebraic Biblical view of Jesus’s world and heritage in that we tend to think abstractly with the goal of finding proof-based, logical arguments. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but when dealing with a supernatural God, it’s problematic at the very least.

We who consider ourselves as the ‘children of the Enlightenment’, the ‘educated Westerners’ have developed the power of human reason as victory over the physical world, and are convinced that human reason and rationality is the measure of all things.

Science is considered the final proof of truth, in our Western, analytical thinking, which is curious since science is in a constant state of flux. One day scientists declare that they’ve discovered an absolute truth about something and a few years later when their information increases and the power of their instruments increases they discover their absolute truth wasn’t truth, it was something else. Science is always changing and such shifting sand isn’t a strong enough foundation to gamble your eternal life upon. The Word of God however is immovable and unchanging. That’s a solid rock on which to build our lives…this one and the eternal life awaiting us.

Evolutionary process is hailed as the answer for man’s existence, worship of a deity is considered the height of stupidity in spite of the fact that worship is the central core attitude and behaviour of the evolutionist himself even if he doesn’t see it that way.

The denial of absolute truth is expounded vehemently while rational understanding that belief in this absolute is antithetical to their held view of no absolute truths. This is called circular reasoning.

It’s the decrying of perceived obscene or unjust judgmental attitudes of those who believe in a God who will one day judge, and yet they themselves sit in vehement judgment of those who hold this view and of the God they say doesn’t exist.

They scream of the hypocrisy at those who denounce or disagree with lifestyle choices while condemning any and every fault or failing of those who believe in God while excusing the same behaviours in their own lives as acceptable because there are no absolute truths or standards.

Paul said in Romans 1, that those who deny God consider themselves to be wise when in fact they’re fools…

Romans 1:22, “Professing to be wise, they became fools.”

We’re going to continue on this subject of the weirdness of the west in our next program, using the acronym of WEIRD as our guide to compare it to the Biblical view.

 

Shalom

Mandy

 

 

 

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Based on the works of Lois Tverberg.

 

*The original paper, called “The Weirdest People in the World?” was published by Joe Henrich, Steven Heine and Ara Norenzayan in Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 2010. This study has spurred further discussion in the secular media about differences between cultures, including the best-seller The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. Haidt points out that WEIRD cultures base their ethical systems only on the freedoms and rights of the individual, unlike the rest of the world, which also bases its ethics on the value of community and of divinity—the idea that one’s principal duty is to God, not one’s self.