We know only what is perceived. One answer is that history is determined as part of a mechanistic universe. Another answer is that history is a linear stream of events linked by cause and effect but without purpose. Yet another answer is that history is meaningless because life is absurd. There are definite, sometimes startling differences.
World views are in collision.
Thus we should know at least something about the world views that are central to the conflict. And we should certainly be able to articulate a Christian world view. In his excellent book, The Universe Next Door , James Sire catalogs the most influential world views of the past and present. These are Christian Theism, Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Existentialism, Eastern Pantheism, and New Age or New Consciousness. The Deist believes in God, but that God created and then abandoned the universe.