My freshman year in college, I took an intro to philosophy course. One of the texts for the course was James Sire’s The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog (Amazon). It covered the basic ways of ordering the universe: theism, deism, nihilism, existentialism, and a few other -isms.
Sire’s book breaks worldviews down into several sections.
- What is prime reality? The really real?
- What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
- What is a human being?
- What happens to a person at death?
- Why is it possible to know anything at all?
- How do we know what is right and wrong?
- What is the meaning of human history?
Sire examines how each -ism answers these questions, and we used these questions as the scaffolding for the whole course.
At the beginning of the term, the professor distributed the syllabus and pointed out that the final exam had a single question, which was on the syllabus: “What is your worldview?”
At the time, my worldview was theism; Christianity to be specific. Or so I thought. Part of it, I believe, was that I wanted to be a Christian. I went to a Christian college; I came from a Christian family; I had Christian friends. As such, my worldview paper reflected a Christian worldview.
What is prime reality? God.
What happens at death? Life everlasting.
A few years later, in Poland, I decided it was time to rewrite the paper to reflect all the changes my worldview had undergone.
What is prime reality? Material.
What happens at death? Nothing.
I had become an atheist, and like all fledgling atheists, I harbored an intense hatred toward all religion, but especially Christianity. This violent antagonism only lasted a few months, for what good comes from being almost angry about what other people believe? Instead, I became intrigued. How could people believe? What is the psychology of belief? The philosophy of it? The sociology? How do people move from belief to disbelief? From disbelief to belief?
In short, as time passed, I mellowed, but more like a cigar than wine: there was still an edge, but it was increasingly less defined.
By the time I reached my mid-thirties, I decided it was time to rewrite the paper once again. That is what this blog is all about: redefining a worldview.
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