What is a Worldview?

What is a Worldview? Randall Niles asks, "What's Your Worldview and Why?"

Have you ever thought about your worldview? Have you ever really examined it, tested it, poked holes in it?

What is a worldview anyway?

Simply, a worldview is a set of beliefs that you hold true and live by. Its a special pair of goggles that you put on every morning that allows you to see the world through your version of reality.

A worldview can be conscious or subconscious -- consistent or inconsistent -- true, partially true, or entirely false. Whether we realize it or not, worldviews are fundamental to our lives. They provide the foundation for our moral values and corresponding actions.

Our worldview provides the holistic perspective from which we interpret ambiguous evidence. When confronted with more than one plausible interpretation, we always interpret evidence in a manner consistent with how we already see the world.

Theres a major problem associated with worldviews. No worldview represents total knowledge. No human knows 100% of everything. In fact, Thomas Edison is thought to have said that we dont know a millionth of one percent about anything. And yet, remarkably, we all have a worldview a crazy mix of knowledge, speculation and ignorance. Of course, this means that worldviews can be wrong: even if I have all of the knowable facts down tight, I can still err in some of my speculations.

Consider this From our observation point, it seems rather obvious that the sun moves around the earth. It appears to rise in the east every morning and set in the west every evening. A person who was ignorant of modern astronomy would find the most indisputable proof that the sun revolves around the earth each and every day. Without modern technology, someone could have all of the knowable facts down tight and still think that the sun circles the earth. And this, of course, was the case for thousands of years.

So, whats my point? A perfectly rational worldview can be terribly wrong. Even the most educated person alive can hold a false view of reality. So, I ask again, have you really examined your worldview lately? Is your belief system really supported by reality?

The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates

Said differently:
The unexamined worldview is not worth believing.

Visit http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/my-worldview.htm to start examining the big questions in your life.

Also, go to http://www.RandallNiles.com/videos.htm to watch more videos in the area of Worldviews!

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• Worldview
• Materialism
• Naturalism
• Relativism
• Humanism
• Belief Systems
• Religion
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[perpetualjuggernaut]

i think we live in a perpetual cycle of life, theres the good the bad and the ugly and we all play our parts in pushing the evolution of man as time roles forward. theres a supreme being, creator God holy Spirit, either way hes still top of the chart and everything made falls under his rule, and we are all figureing this out as time progresses and relizing, "damm its all the same stuff, lets live in peace!"

[at40100]

my worldview is distorted thoughts google that up if you care.

[Randum587]

I question God and his works, He's never there for me and I keep seeing people around me who believe god gave them mericles as extra help in thier lives. I believed in him and all i got was heartache and grief. For now "God" is a mere figment of my inmagination.

[crazy3diamond]

our world view is how we see God..if we see him as the center of our world, or whether he is excluded from that. most of the world's view is against God. some think he has something to do with it...but actually, he has everything to do with it. God is the one in charge, and if we do not have that view, then there are consequences to that sort of thinking.

[campdon]

I picked up somewhere on the web this easy test of worldview: What's true? What's important? What's right? What's wrong?

That seems to be a good means of identifying worldview.

[dovad16]

I keep it simple. My world view is that we live in a world of cause/effect relationships to which we must react and interact. I do so by the grace of God and his provisioning.