Today, more than ever, the definition and recognition of one's worldview is critical to communication and understanding. During this particular presidential election cycle, differing worldviews are colliding like bumper cars, replete with sparks flying, yelling, and hap-hazard unfocused encounters that seem out of focus.
It is so important for a person to understand their own worldview (like noses, everyone has one) before they begin to try to understand someone elses. So, to be very brief, if one would like to begin this journey of discovery for their own worldview, the following questions (no matter how disjointed they may seem) will help you get started and begin to focus.
1. Who is in charge?
2. How did we get here?
3. What is the problem with the world?
4. How is morality defined?
5. Who is to blame?
6. What is responsibility?
7. What is truth?
8. When did things go wrong?
9. What is the solution to human suffering?
10. What is fairness?
11. Is there an afterlife?
12. What is success?
13. What defines a "bad" person?
14. What is the purpose of life?
15. What is really important?
16. How do you define justice?
17. Where did we come from?
18. When does life begin?
19. Who is God?
20. How do we find peace?
Very general, broad, and yet -- very defining in scope and practicality -- these questions and more help us find out where we are in our worldviews, and how we got there.
As one takes that journey, it helps to know some of the factors that helped define our worldview, including....
- Our family structure
- Any religious influences
- Early feelings of belonging, or isolation
- Performance in school
- Close friends
- Personal predispositions (inherently ill tempered, or settled, or a loner, etc.)
- Impactful situations (a personal tragedy, a personal victory, etc.)
- Things that gave you a feeling of belonging and security
- Things that gave you a feeling of being threatened or alarmed
- Interaction, or lack thereof, with other cultures
- Travel
- Media influences
And many more. A worldview is not developed entirely in our younger years, but like ourselves, it is organic and growing. However, most of the core of one's worldview is usually established by the early years of adulthood.
A particular worldview comes out when we speak about core beliefs, core convictions, and core standards for ourselves, and others.
We all have a worldview. We all need to be very familiar with what ours is, and for Christians, this process carries extra weight, as it can reveal much about our walk with Christ, and where we are in being conformed to His image. And that will be the topic of another entry.
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