Worlviews

Worldview

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Prov.16:25

A worldview is defined by how a person views, understands and interprets reality.

Typically ten basic disciplines can be considered when determining a given worldview.

1) Theology – Does God exist? If so, what is He like? Is there one or many?

2) Philosophy – How can we know what is true? Is there any meaning to life?

3) Ethics – What is the basis of morality? Is their really right and wrong? Says who?

4) Science – How does the world work? Where did it come from? What about life?

5) Psychology – What is the human mind? Why do people do what they do?

6) Sociology – How can people best get along? Why conflict and war?

7) Law – Where do laws come from? Who has the right to say what is legal or illegal?

8) Politics – Which is the best form of government? Do we need any government?

9) Economics –Who should benefit from a persons labor? What about private ownership?

10) History- Can we truly know anything about the past? How can we be sure?

Ones worldview will greatly affect how ones views six fundamental questions.

1) God – One, none or many?

2) Origins – Is the universe eternal, created or an illusion?

3) Evil – Does evil exist? Where did it come from?

4) Human nature – Is man basically good, basically evil or neutral?

5) Values – Are there universal objective standards or are all values arbitrary?

6) Destiny – Where am I going? Is there any purpose to all of this?

We will be considering the seven basic worldviews in this study.

1) Theism – There is one eternal, infinite, personal God. He created the universe from nothing (“ex nihilo”) and He sustains it by the power of His will. He transcends the universe and He is immanent in it. God exists beyond and in the world. The three great theistic world religions are Judaism, Islam and Christianity. All three are monotheistic (one God). All three believe that God is one being. Judaism and Islam believe that He is one person. Christianity is Trinitarian Monotheism and believes that God is three persons in one eternal being.

2) Deism – There is one eternal, infinite, personal God who created the universe. He transcends His creation but is not immanent in it. He remains completely beyond the world and does not intervene in it or in history. He is like a divine watchmaker that built the watch, wound it up and then stepped back and let it run on its own. There is no reason that an omniscient Creator would ever need to tinker with His perfect creation if He did it right in the first place. He is the Author of all natural laws and they are perfect and inviolable. Miracles are unnecessary and impossible. In addition to the physical laws that control and direct the material creation God has divinely created and ordained ethical and moral laws that are universal and are the objective standards for all men and for all time.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

3) Atheism – The material universe is all that exists. There is no God or spiritual realm. There is no human soul and no afterlife. The universe itself is eternal. Morality and ethics are relative and are grounded in humanity and in circumstances. Evil is simply human ignorance and can be eliminated through education and human cooperation.

Empiricism, Naturalism, Materialism, Secular Humanism.

Agnosticism – “No knowledge”; 1) God is unknown (I don’t know God); 2) God is unknowable (no one can know God).

A life lived as an agnostic amounts to “practical atheism”, as does nominal Christianity.

Acognosticism – The term God has no content or meaning. God cannot even be discussed meaningfully. All God talk is nonsense. This is also known as “semantical atheism”.

4) Pantheism – God is all there is in reality. “God is all, all is God.” The material world is actually an illusion. The universe was created out of God – “ex Deo” – out of the “stuff of God.” Evil is an illusion and will eventually be absorbed by God. Humanity itself will eventually be absorbed by God from which it came. God is one infinite, personal or impersonal being. All of history is cyclical, illusory and is eternal.

Hinduism, most forms of Buddhism, New Age, Unity, Christian Science, Scientology and Hegelianism are all forms of Pantheism.

Acosmism – The metaphysical view that the physical universe does not really exist at all, but is only a manifestation of the eternal, singular and absolute Spirit, which alone is real

(a particular form of Pantheism, the opposite of Atheism).

5) Panentheism – God is all that there is; but He exists in two poles (bipolar). He is potentially infinite in His metaphysical pole (Divine Mind) and finite in His material pole (the universe). In other words, God is in the universe as a mind is in a body. The universe is Gods body. It is God’s actual pole while His other pole is His infinite potential to “become”. The universe is created both “ex materia” (from preexistent eternal matter) and “ex Deo” (from God’s eternal immaterial being) therefore, the universe itself is eternal.

God is an organism, i.e. the material universe which contains His eternal unconscious drive to know Himself which He realizes in the process of becoming what He potentially is.

This is also known as “Process Theology”, Bipolar Theism” and “Organicism”.

6) Finite Godism – Due to the fact that evil exists, God cannot be infinitely good or infinitely powerful. He must be limited in His goodness or in His power or both. Therefore He must be finite. Also, in light of the fact that man has real free will, God cannot be all knowing because man’s future choices have not yet been made, so God must wait until they are made before He can know them.

“Open-view Theism”, “Opentheism”, “Presentism”, “Freewill Theism”, “Extreme Arminianism”, “Openness of God”, “Neotheism”.

7) Polytheism – Many finite gods exist. All of reality is pluralistic and relativistic. There is no single center of exclusive truth, but rather a so called “polymorphous reality” wherein contraries are both true. In this pluralistic concept of reality logic is rejected and relativism is embraced. Truth cannot be categorized as “either / or” but as “both / and”.

The universe is eternal and the gods are finite, coming out of the world which was created from pre-existent eternal matter (“ex materia”).

Ancient Greeks and Romans (Pantheon of gods), Mormons, Neo-pagans (Wiccans).

The chart bellow summarizes this material visually.

Reality is either the universe only, God only or the universe and God(s).

If the universe is all that really exists then Atheism is correct. (3)

If God is all that exists then Pantheism is right. (4)

If God and the universe both exist then there is either one God or there are many gods.

If there are many gods then Polytheism describes reality. (7)

If there is only one God then that God is either finite or infinite.

If God is finite and distinct from the universe then Finite Godism is true. (6)

If this finite God has two poles and is in process then Panentheism is right. (5)

If there is one infinite God then He either intervenes in creation and history or He does not.

If God does not intervene in the world then Deism is correct. (2)

But if there is one God who both transcends the universe and is immanent in the universe, and who intervenes in the affairs and the history of the universe then Theism is true. (1)

 

Worldview Chart

 

Universe Only                                                                                           God Only

    Atheism                                                                                                 Pantheism

         3                                                                                                               4

                                                      Universe and God

                                            

                          

                                          

                  One God                                                                     Many Gods

                                                                                                                 Polytheism

                                                                                                                        7

                          

                          Finite                                                       Infinite

                 

 Finite Godism                 Two poles

           6                             Panentheism

                                                  5

                                                                                                                                         

                                                        Transcendent and                  Transcendent

                                                 Immanent                               Only     

 

                                                 Theism                                 Deism

                                                                       

                                                                 1                                           2