Every worldview has a starting  place.  Indeed, every worldview has its own creation story.  Whether you are considering Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or even scientific rationalism, there is a creation story.  Your creation story will largely determine the direction of your worldview.

The scientific rationalism creation story is that everything that is came from nothing through time and chance.  Starting with this beginning, it is completely logical to reach the conclusion that man is no different from other animals or that morals are nothing more than an illusion, a social convention.  In fact, no other conclusion can be reached.  Ultimately there is no purpose or direction to life or anything.  Man is a machine and free will is an illusion as is love.

The problem with this set of conclusions, as Francis Schaeffer rightly points out, is that no one can live with them.  The scientist who is devoted to this position will proclaim it loudly in books and seminars but when he gets home at night he acts as if it were not true.  He treats his wife and family with love.  He expects people to be responsible and he has no problem with criminals being punished, particularly if the crime was against them!

The Christian and Jewish creation story is much different.  This creation story says that everything that is was created by God.  And not just any god, but a personal God who has a purpose and who is interested in the lives of men.  The Bible says that God created man in His own image, meaning that God created man with personality and a desire for personal relationships.  God created them this way so that they could have a personal relationship with Him because God is personal, having a relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit throughout all eternity.

As far as everyday life is concerned this creation story and the conclusions that result from it are easy to live with.  Morals are easily explained as is love.  One conclusion is that we have a purpose.  It is interesting to observe that every person on earth seeks to find a purpose for their lives.  If they cannot find one outside of themselves they will seek to create one.  One is hard pressed to find the competitive advantage such a desire has if in reality there is no purpose.  If the scientific rationalist creation story is correct, man can never really be fulfilled because his search for purpose will always come up empty.

The Christian creation story has certain inescapable conclusion just as the scientific rationalist creation story does.  For example, if there really is a God who created everything, He is the basis for all moral laws.  Consequently, we, as part of His creation, are responsible to and answerable to Him.  There is no way around the conclusion. 

Such a conclusion is distasteful to some people.  Our natural inclination is be free from moral responsibility.  We don’t really like being under authority.  But why should that be?  Is there some Darwinian competitive advantage for feeling so?  It really is a universal feeling.  The Christian creation story provides an answer.  That is, man is fallen through the sin of Adam.  Scientific rationalism has no answer.

However you view it, everyone lives their lives as if the Biblical account of creation is true, whether they believe that account or not.  All strive for meaning and purpose in life.  All seek out love and relationships.  Everyone acts as if they had free will.  Scientific rationalism cannot explain these phenomena.  It can speculate about how this or that might possible be some sort of advantage in terms of survival of the fittest but their explanations fall flat.  All the theories in the world don’t change the way men live, even the scientists.