Worldviews
A worldview is the comprehensive set of beliefs, values, and assumptions (like lenses) through which individuals interpret reality, and guide actions. Many use it to understand their place in the world. One's worldview is formed by culture, experience, and upbringing; it defines personal identity and shapes how societies approach issues like morality, religion, and existence. Each person has their own worldview, and similarities in worldviews can be generalized and grouped (done on this page). A worldview will have views on: God (Theology), Knowledge (Epistemology), Origin (Cosmology), Humanity (Anthropology), Morality (Ethics), Salvation (Soteriology), Meaning (Teleology), and Destiny (Eschatology). As such, one's worldview greatly affects one's actions and one's outlook on life. Worldview is a set of constructs by which we interpret how the world operates.
Three of the Largest world views are :
Western Worldview: Also called the Judeo-Christian Worldview, it is a broad outlook. Those with this worldview are not all Jews or Christians; this view is also called Western Civilization. In this worldview are subsets. The Western worldview is best known for giving humanity: the scientific method, Western Medicine, hospitals, the Industrial Revolution, the space age, the information age, individual rights, and freedom of expression. The Judeo-Christian Worldview beliefs came through the Christian Reformation and the Renaissance. The modern Western worldviews were born from the mixing of the best of Judeo-Christian worldviews and that of Greek-Roman worldviews. Greek-Roman worldviews included duty, state power, representative government, fine arts, and common law. The Greek and Roman polytheistic gods, the Olympians, such as Zeus/Jupiter, were replaced by the Transcendent monotheistic God of the Bible. The Judeo-Christian Worldview gave the modern Western worldview: dignity of all individuals as created (made in the image of God), fostering concepts of universal human rights, liberty of conscience, work ethic, compassion, and moral responsibility. It propelled modern science and education through a rational, ordered view of creation. The Judeo-Christian Worldview ended slavery in the UK (William Wilberforce) and the USA (Civil War). A subset of the Western worldview is the Traditional worldview: the Golden age of European Enlightenment (USA in the 1940s and 1950s) thought, prioritizing individualism, the Traditional family, service, faith, scientific rationalism, work ethic, moral vaules and economic growth. (also see Christianity page)
Eastern Worldview: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and New Age teachings, which view the universe and life as cyclical (reincarnation). It emphasizes finding harmony with nature, personal enlightenment through meditation, and other Eastern crafts. It views the "self" as an illusion, or a part of a larger, impersonal divine reality These are polytheistic and pantheistic (all is god and there are many gods). Karma is a major part of this worldview. Karma is not cause and effect; it is always your fault. If someone ran a red light and hit you, it is because you did something to deserve it, in this life or one of your past lives. This gave rise to the caste system, you are to stay in the system you are born into (the opposite of Western work ethic, work hard to grow into a higher system). Caste system is a rigid, hereditary, and hierarchical social system, primarily associated with India (but moved east), that classifies individuals into distinct groups based on birth, determining their occupation, social status, and marriage options. It historically divides society into Upper, working, and the untouchables, thus historically made oppression a way of life as normal. Also see Hundu page.
Indigenous Worldviews: Are Holistic, relational, and land-based perspectives shared by many Indigenous peoples, emphasizing the sacred interconnectedness of all living things, the importance of reciprocity. They prioritize harmony with nature, community well-being, spiritual responsibility, and oral traditions (ussaly about animals). This shares many traits with the Eastern Worldview, including: polytheistic and pantheistic gods.
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Newer worldviews:
Naturalism worldview: Asserting that the physical, material universe is all that exists, completely rejecting supernaturalism, deities, and immaterial souls. It relies on science and empirical evidence to explain reality, viewing human beings as natural, evolved entities rather than divine creations. In the 1980s, the Naturalism worldview discovered that its steady-state theory of the universe (the universe had no beginning, which matched its worldview) was wrong. The universe, all space, time, matter and energy) came into existence 13.7 billion years ago. (see age of Earth page). Since this time the Naturalism worldview as be working to fine a way out of this decovery that does not match its Naturalism worldview. Reality is just mass and energy. See Space-time theorem page and Anthropic Principle page.
Atheistic materialism worldview: A newer worldview. The material universe is what is really real. We are all the products of matter, time and chance alone. Knowledge is the result of physical processes in our brains, no more. The universe has no purpose. It began as some random quantum variation and will likely end in thermodynamic heat death. As there is no God or gods, reality is just in our brains. There is no ultimate purpose to human life. We live and we die and it doesn't matter what we do with our life. Death is the end of our personal existence. Moral (right and wrong) are up to individuals or groups (the majority). Comic death is coming; there is no real meaning to life. In reality, those who hold this view do not live their life as their worldview teaches. As such, this view is small and getting smaller, as it is held mostly by upper Intellectuals, that make a living teaching it. Reality is just mass and energy. See Atheism page
Postmodernism Worldview: rejects objective, absolute truths and universal "grand narratives," favoring instead a relativistic, pluralistic perspective where truth is subjective, contextual, and socially constructed. Emerging as a reaction to modernism's reliance on reason and science, it emphasizes skepticism towards authority, embraces ambiguity and diversity, and holds that individuals create their own reality. The goal is to achieve equality of outcome rather than just equality of opportunity.
Woke Worldview: Is a subset of Postmodernism. Is a sociopolitical ideology focused on heightened (real or imaginary) awareness of systemic injustices, particularly regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation. It argues that society is structurally oppressive and seeks to replace traditional norms with equity-focused reforms. Proponents view it as pursuing social justice, while critics see it as divisive and detrimental to traditional, merit-based values. The goal is to achieve equality of outcome rather than just equality of opportunity (lowering of stanard for equality). Heavy into identity politics (labeling people and calling them negative names) and cancel culture (public shaming (banning) and mass, collective boycotting). Sexualization of children is the gender cause.
Integrative Worldview: A type of Eastern -New Age Worldview: Holistic, views the universe as an evolving, interconnected whole. Perspectival framework (about me) that has diverse views: (Postmodernism) science, spirituality (Eastern ), tradition, and reason (Western)—to create a balanced understanding of reality. It emphasizes interconnectedness between individuals, society (social justice goals-perceived or real), and nature, often aiming for sustainability (green deal) and personal growth (yoga-meditation). This perspective bridges fragmented ideas and fosters a deeper sense of unity.
Skeptical Worldview: Skeptics must rely completely upon physical evidence. The second principle is that skeptics must be logically consistent at all times. In other words, a skeptic may not believe something to be true if it is contradicted by observational evidence. Most skeptics who are atheists believe that all phenomena have naturalistic causes. This belief is based upon the observation of our world, in which cause and effect are observed on a daily basis, with rare exception, if at all. One must ask the question, "Just because cause and effect overwhelmingly operate in our universe, does this mean that supernatural events never occur?" Even in the Bible, which claims to be a record of God's supernatural actions, over 90% of what is described is purely naturalistic. So, even the Bible recognizes that the vast majority of events that occur in the universe have a natural cause. However, one who insists that supernatural events never occur is expressing a belief that can never be fully confirmed. To be truly open-minded, one must recognize the possibility that supernatural events do occur. skeptic or atheist is governed by two main principles: 1) all beliefs must be supported by observational evidence, and 2) beliefs that contradict observational evidence cannot be tolerated. However, strong atheism states that there is no god, even though observational evidence indicates that the universe has a cause that cannot be detected observationally. So despite the lack of observational evidence for a naturalistic cause for the universe, the strong atheist believes that the universe has a naturalistic cause and that there is no god, contradicting the tenet that all beliefs should be based upon Evidence that is based upon physical measurement of some kind. It does not refer to evidence that only has been personally observed by every individual nor is it only of a visible nature (visual observation).
Deist Worldview: A rational Creator established the universe, its natural laws, and morality, but does not intervene in human affairs, perform miracles, or provide divine revelations. Often viewing God as a "clockmaker". Deists believe in a supreme being who created the world, set it in motion, and then allowed it to function according to natural, rational laws. Deism generally denies miracles, prophecy, divine revelation, the Trinity, and the divinity of Jesus (do not look at evidence or dismiss it out of hand).
Theistic Worldview: Holds that a personal, transcendent God created, sustains, and is actively involved in the universe and human affairs. It asserts that God is the source of all reality, objective truth, and moral values. Human life is considered purposeful, created in God's image, and accountable to Him. This Judaism and Christianity. The universe is not accidental but created ex nihilo (out of nothing) by a rational Being, giving it purpose and order. Humans are created beings in the image of God, with both material and immaterial (soul) parts, possessing inherent dignity and moral accountability. Because God is the standard, truth and ethics are objective and universal, rather than subjective or relative. Sin is also called separation from God, is overcome (redemption) in Jesus Christ with a promise of a New Creation.
Young Earth Creationist (YEC) Worldview: Emotion-based worldview, rejects evidence in science and the Bible. Earth is 6,000 years old from a focused (not literal) view of the Bible from Seventh-day Adventist (SDA).
Intelligent Design (ID) Worldview: The intelligent Design Movement is a movement to gather scientists from all different faiths, and teach about the design in the universe, earth, and life, without saying who the designer is, since the group may have different faiths. The intelligent design (ID) movement teaches that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than undirected processes like natural selection. Started in the 1980s as a challenge to evolutionary theory, it posits that complex biological structures exhibit design. ID has no testable model. Since there is no model, there are no predictions from the theory. No refinement of the theory is possible and is thus not testable. In an attempt to be all-inclusive, most ID proponents have failed to define the Intelligent Designer and reject young-earth creationism (more failure in external testing). While many parts of ID are true, there is no creation model and thus not a completely useful tool. A creationmodel must have: The intelligent Designer is identified; The model is detailed; The model can be refined; The model is testable and falsifiable; and The model can make predictions (for testing). See Creation Models.
Christian Evidance based Worldview: For the time in which it was written, the Bible makes some rather surprising claims regarding the nature of the universe and how it was created. The Bible says that time was created by God when He created the universe. Stephen Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose extended the equations for general relativity to include space and time, demonstrating that time began at the formation of the universe. (See Space-Time) The New Testament even declares that the visible creation was made from what was not visible and that dimensions of length, width, and height were created by God. In addition, the Bible refuted steady-state theory (saying that the creation of matter and energy is endless) long before science made that determination. The Bible also states that the universe is subject to decay and will wear out. and end. The existence of the second law of thermodynamics, coupled with recent discoveries indicating that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, with insufficient matter to stop that contraction, guarantees that the Bible is correct on this claim. The purpose of the universe is to provide a temporary habitation for human beings to choose to love or reject God. All human beings are valuable to God and none has any more value than any other. Moral laws are given by God, and like the laws of physics, do not change. Immoral behavior is not justified by circumstances. The Christian worldview operates on the basis of the theology presented in the Bible. There is more than enough evidence that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be Jesus page. The Christian Evidence-based Worldview provides the answers to why the universe was created, why the universe is the way it is, and how to enter the next new creation. The energy, mass, space and time is from God.
Worldviews can be tested using the following criteria:
Logical consistency
Balanced (not too simple or complex)
Explanatory power and scope
Correspondence to well-established facts
Verifiable (truth claims can be verified or falsified)
Applicable to real life
Fills existential needs
Although both Christianity and naturalism are logically consistent within their own spheres, they come to radically different conclusions.
Both worldviews are reasonably balanced, although naturalism must resort to extremely complex hypotheses to explain the origin of the universe and the origin of life.
The explanatory power and scope of Christianity and naturalism tend to lie in different areas. Naturalism's strength lies in its explanation of the history of the earth and how living organisms function on a physical basis. It has failed to adequately explain the origin of the universe, the origin of life on earth, and the development of human consciousness, altruism and morality. However, much of this information was unavailable to naturalism until the last 50 years. Christianity does address the big questions of origins (the origin of the universe, the origin of life on earth, and the development of human consciousness, altruism and morality), which naturalism inadequately addresses. As demonstrated above and on this website, Christianity provides some surprisingly accurate explanations of our physical world, even though it was written thousands of years before actual proof of those claims could be experimentally verified. Scientific naturalism has always claimed to provide explanations that are verifiable and can be falsified experimentally. However, there has been a recent change in the explanations of those espousing the naturalism-only worldview. As atheists attempt to answer the "big questions," explanations have become more metaphysical and complicated in nature. Explanations such as the multiverse are probably not even falsifiable (and the origins of life models). One of naturalism's big failures is in its ability to provide application to real life issues for human beings. Explanations of human romantic love and need for interpersonal relationships, our need to create beautiful works of art and music, and our desire to help others (altruism) seem to defy naturalistic explanation. Attempts to fit these realities into the Darwinian evolutionary box have failed miserably. Even the evil side of our natures seems extreme from an evolutionary standpoint. Christianity provides a far superior explanation. The largest problem for naturalism is a failure to provide for the existential needs of human beings. People have a need for meaning, a purpose for living, and a hope for the future. Naturalism provides for none of this. In fact, naturalism destroys the idea that humans have a purpose, and leaves individuals only with the prospect of aging, suffering and eventual death and non-existence. In addition, naturalism says that there is no hope for the human species, since we will be eventually destroyed by an asteroid collision, a nearby supernova event, global warming, or solar expansion. Even if we manage to escape from our solar system to another, the eventual collision of our galaxy with the much larger Andromeda galaxy will cause chaos throughout most of the galaxy. After this time, we can expect that the accelerating expansion of the universe will eventually rip apart the entire universe into its elementary particles as the universe suffers permanent heat death - the end of all life. So much for the "hope" from naturalism. The human need for a spiritual connection causes even most naturalists to go into meditation, study Buddhism, etc. to attempt to fulfill this need. When I was an agnostic, the lack of purpose in my life was eventually disturbing, as my life settled from the franticness of college into the complacency of a steady job. Even though the science in my job was exciting, there was something missing - ultimate purpose.
Many religious truth claims are testable. Those who are truly interested in whether a religion represents truth should test the claims to see how they stand against the evidence. Modern cosmology destroys the Hindu model for the universe, but affirms the Judeo-Christian model. Cosmology and earth sciences destroy the strange assertions of the Quran. Archeology, cosmology and molecular biology destroy the claims of the LDS Book of Mormon., but confirm many claims from the Bible. For an ancient document written thousands of years ago, the Bible makes some remarkable scientific claims - many of which were not verified until this century. However, the Bible was never written to serve as a science textbook, but was given as guide to having a relationship with God and our fellow human beings. The Bible answers the "why" and "what" questions that naturalism says are unanswerable:
Why does the universe exist?
Why do human beings exist?
What is my purpose?
Why do I do things I know I shouldn't do?
Is this all there is (See New Creation)
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Atheists are left with a dilemma, since their worldview requires that all things that begin to exist must have a cause. So, logic requires the admission that the universe had a cause. Virtually all atheists say that this cause was some natural phenomenon. It is also possible that the cause of the universe was a supernatural intelligence (i.e., God). However, there is no direct observational evidence for either belief. Those who are "strong atheists", a belief that no god exists, have just violated one of the main rules of atheism - that all beliefs are based upon observational evidence. So, any atheist who denies the possible existence of God violates his own worldview. The problem actually gets worse for the atheist. The physical laws of the universe fall within very narrow ranges in order for life (or even matter) to exist, suggesting some level of design. If true, then the observational evidence actually leans toward the existence of God, contradicting strong atheism. The prospect of finding a naturalistic cause for the origin of the universe is bleak at best, since the laws of physics indicate that we will never be able to escape the bounds of our universe to even attempt to look for the cause of the universe.
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Also see Creation Models page
Also see the Religions page
Ref:
https://reasons.org/explore/publications/connections/what-in-the-world-is-a-worldview
A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test by Kenneth Richard Samples
https://worldviewjourneys.com/four-worldviews/