None of us believes what we do without some influence from the world around. Do work through these few questions and ponder how objective your current beliefs actually are?
What is a worldview?
"A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of our world."
A worldview is like a picture puzzle made up of different pieces that represent the answers to our deepest questions about reality.
Our problem is that we have either:
- Obtained the wrong pieces (answers) and therefore constructed for ourselves a false and often incomplete or inconsistent picture of reality (worldview).
- Started with such a false picture (worldview) already assumed, and therefore subconsciously predisposed ourselves to accept only pieces (answers) that will fit it, even if this means that we have to distort these pieces (answers) to do so.
- What is my worldview?
- Where has it come from?
- Can a correct view of the world be known?
What is my worldview?
What do you believe about:
- Whether God exists?
- What God is like?
How does this belief about God influence your view of:
- Why you exist?
- What’s gone wrong with the world?
- How you know right from wrong?
- What happens after you die?
Where has my worldview come from?
What do you think the different factors that shape our worldviews today are?
What do you think the biggest influences on your worldview have been?
Where have you taken a step of faith in something other than yourself, in forming your worldview?
Can a correct view of the world be known?
What do you think the most important reason to believe something should be?
How can you be sure that your beliefs are not simply false or self-delusional?
What would convince you to change your worldview?
John’s gospel begins:
"In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
What implications does Jesus’ claim to have both created and come from outside reality, have on this search for truth?