8 Questions To Ask Yourself In Regard To Worldview

Let us consider the basic aspects of a contemporary worldview. For this analysis we will consider eight questions carefully depicted by Professor James W. Sire in his work The Universe Next Door. There are other depictions of worldview that we might consider, but this form is direct and to the point in the clearest way possible. We will examine each of these eight areas of the mosaic of perspectives in the world and particularly reference their importance to how people identify themselves in our society in regard to race, ethnicity, gender and group socialization. I will be defending the thesis that these areas of identity are fundamental to establishing a worldview based on objective truth and knowledge of one’s self and the world, the past, and the future. Yet we will also see that God is able through His divine prevenient grace to draw any person, from any worldview, no matter how near or far from himself, to win them to His son Jesus Christ.

One: “What is prime reality- the really real?” (Sire, 2020, p. 8) What is the core reality of the universe and everything? Is it life and order, is it chaos and disorder? How does it all fit together? Many worldviews seem contradictory. They espouse a belief in God, but fail to live as if God were really real. Or they claim to believe in only a pitiless universe of howling nothingness but cry out for justice in the world with burning hot anger. But what justice exists in a pitiless universe? There is none. This is the most important question in my view: What is at the base of the structure on which you are forming your worldview?

For each of these areas of concern, race, ethnicity, gender, and group socialization we see certain factors that influence toward certain worldviews. But it’s important to note that each of these factors, race, ethnicity, gender, and group socialization are facets of worldviews built upon the bottom base, but they do not really define the bottom base. If our ancestors hail from a nation like Poland, like mine, I found myself raised in a Catholic church. Another may be more disconnected from their ethnicity. Some may take great stock in their race and form their identity around it, others may not. Obviously, the way a man and a woman grow up and live, will be very different from each other, and ethnicity and race will play into that dynamic as well. So will group socialization. Of each of these areas I believe group socialization is by far the most important because there the individual will find the influences of others, to even have a proper understanding of their gender, ethnicity, or race. In the group, we find our identity, whether it’s in a church, in a sports team, in a family unit, a university, or in a political/activist organization.

I would say that one will often not even consider this first question as they form their worldview. The worldview forms based on these areas of gender, ethnicity, race and group, and later as the individual grows and develops and ages, at some point they may eventually look back and ask the question, “What is prime reality?” From what I can tell from those I encounter on a daily basis, most do not even consider the big question of what prime reality is. They are busy defining themselves, making their plans, and living their lives, and the question of prime reality is missed entirely. This was also true for me, for many years of my early life, teens, and twenties. Let’s continue.

Two: “What is the nature of external reality (that is, the world around us)?” (Sire, 2020, p. 8) What is happening on this messed up world called Earth? That is the question all people seem to wrestle with. It doesn’t matter if they are Christian, deist, naturalist, socialist, capitalist, Freudian, or Jungian, it’s a question on every person’s mind, what went wrong here? Once again we see that these areas of self-definition in society will play into this dynamic of understanding the problem with the world. For a Christian, we understand the world went wrong when Adam and Eve joined Satan’s rebellion against God in the perfect garden of Eden. And as a result, all of reality was cursed and became fallen. For a deist, they may consider the brokenness of the universe to be the work of a disinterested deity who created and disappeared. For a naturalist, they may consider the brokenness of the world to be a result of the concept of survival of the fittest, that evolution is vicious and without remorse in how it plays out. For a post-modernist, they might say that the evil of the world is a result of western colonization and imperialism and abuse by westerners of the developing world. For a modernist or utopian, they might believe that the constant progress of society has not yet reached its perfection, but someday humanity will transcend all darkness and evil, and form an idyllic society. Ethnicity, race, gender, and group identity will all play a part in these definitions. It all depends on experience. The family unit will influence an individual toward their preferred religion, or lack of religion. One’s social peers, those of similar race and ethnicity will influence the individual toward certain social, political, and religious beliefs. It’s all a game of influence, to a certain extent. Yet, we also see a sovereign God in the world drawing people out of Islam and toward himself, drawing people out of Post-modernism and toward himself, drawing people out of political radicalism and toward himself, drawing people away from nihilism and toward himself. That is the beautiful thing about an infinite God, he can overcome any false worldview, with the objectively true worldview. And that is one contention I want to make very clearly, there is a worldview in which one is able to perceive ultimate truth albeit in a limited sense. And there are worldviews where people are believing and living by things that are not true. This must certainly be the case.