Sermon Illustration: The Backwards Bike

We all know the phrase, “It’s as easy as riding a bike”.  Here we have a great lesson on how we train our brains to think a certain way, and it is really hard to adjust that pattern.

Really hard.

This experiment made one small adjustment to a normal bicycle, making it impossible to ride without extensive retraining of your brain. The main point driven home by this backward bicycle: you view the world through an interpretive bias, whether you realize it or not.

How have you developed your interpretive grid? What guides the way you view the world?

This video is very cool. It shows how we truly function in reality, with something “as easy as riding a bike”.

Blessings, Adam

Everyone Accepts Absolutes

“There are no absolutes.”

“Everything is relative.”

Statements similar to these exhibit the height of ignorance. Despite their self-contriditicting nature, (Isn’t “there are no absolutes” a very absolute statement? If “everything is relative,” isn’t this statement relative too?) it is very interesting that people who says silly things like this, actually only say it in reference to a small scope of reality.

These fallacious statements are said only when it comes to ethical, philosophical, and/or religious discussions.

Have you ever thought about that? No one ever applies it to all of reality!

No one ever tries to say “there are no absolutes” when it comes to mathematics! You would be scoffed out of the room if you tried to implement this belief into the scientific method. The Judge never winks at the criminal while in court and assures them that “there are no absolutes”.

Everyone accepts absolutes.  It is impossible to live otherwise.  Everyone accepts that 2+2=5 NEVER happens. Everyone understands that murder and rape are wrong at a fundamental level for all people of all times and places. Everyone lives on a planet that obeys ultra-specific, absolute, laws of physics.

Consider the fine tuning of our universe. The constants that make life sustainable are razor-edge specific. If any one of these constants were off by a fraction, there would be no you, no me, no earth.  Yet, we live because there are absolutes all around us.  This video explaines these powerful facts better than I can.

So I pose a question. If our world is filled with absolutes, where do these absolutes come from?

And even more importantly, Why?

I think you know my answer to these questions. But have you thought them through for yourself?



Worldview Summery Chart

Click on this informative chart to get a clear(er) understanding of the differing worldviews. Many times we hear these terms thrown around incorrectly. So here is a chance to see them side by side with their definitions.

(click the graphic for a zoomable view.)


Do You Know Which Worldview You Really Hold?


The southern region of the United States is known as the bible-belt. It is common for most people here (as I write in TN) to associate with some type of christian label. But does everyone who claims to be a christian really hold a christian worldview?

The short answer is no. But worldviews are complex.

What is a worldview you ask? A worldview is the filter through which you interpret the data of life. This filter is made up of your presuppositions, values, and answers to life’s most basic questions. We all have a worldview, the question is whether we intentionally established it, or allowed to haphazardly develop through time.

I believe many people call themselves “christian” because it is a culturally acceptable term (common, but not limited to the bible-belt), but if their belief system was truly examined another label may actually describe them better. This worldview flow chart is helpful to identify some of your own core beliefs to better understand which worldview you hold.

Track through this flow chart for a while and discover which worldview you operate under, as well as see how others may answer some of life’s most important questions. Click the chart to see a larger version. I hope this is helpful and informative. Let me know in the comments.   – Adam



Saturdays With C.S. Lewis: Christian Worldview

We all have a lens through which we see and interpret the world around us. Anyone who claims to be “neutral” or to simply “let the facts speak” has a misunderstanding about how reason functions. There must always be a framework, a worldview, through which we package and understand information. C.S. Lewis understood this.

― C.S. Lewis

He understood that through the reality of Christ we best understand everything else! No really…Everything: from God, spirituality, relationships, finances, self worth, work ethic, parenting, you name it and it is best understood in the light of Biblical Christianity.

The question is, what worldview framework are you working within?