“[t]here is in mankind a persistent tendency to achieve a comprehensive interpretation, a Weltanschauung, or philosophy, in which a picture of reality is combined with a sense of its meaning and value and with principles of action ...”
If you don’t think you have a worldview, then that is your worldview … that there are no worldviews. We all have one so what is yours?
The question I want to ask this week is whether or not your personal worldview is worth investing your life into? Who you are, your values and character, how you relation to people, how you raise your children, the legacy you leave behind are all influenced by your worldview. Have you intentionally thought about this before or does your life just role on? If you are yet to consider your worldview and its direct impact on you, the reality is that you are automatically being influenced by the world around you; your family, friends, leisure activities, tv shows, music, etc. Are you satisfied to have the influence of others direct the way you live your life and the legacy you leave behind? Or do you want to be the one who decides your own worldview and therefore the way you live your life and the legacy you leave?
I am not saying it is bad to have others have influence on our lives. We grow up with our family directly influencing who we are, the values we hold too and what is right and wrong. This does not take away our responsibility as adults to determine and chose our own worldviews. Sometimes we will choose that what our parents have taught us is truth and worth choosing as our own worldview. Sometimes we will chose differently. Sometimes we just do what our friends do and follow the crowd. Either way, whether intentionally or not, we are choosing our worldview and the values and beliefs that will determine the way we will live our lives.
There is no such thing as a neutral worldview. Everyone is for something and therefore against what opposes the ‘something’. There is no worldview that sits on a fence indecisively. There is not a person alive who does not have an opinion about something based on his own worldview.
So how do we know if our worldview is right, wrong or indifferent? How do we know if our worldview is real or just a figment of someone’s imagination? Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, proposes that a worldview consists of 4 things; (i) origin, (ii) meaning, (iii) morality and (iv) destiny. How does your worldview answer each of these questions? Are the answers coherent? Are you satisfied with the answers?
A problem occurs when a person’s values, beliefs and resultant opinions and thoughts are communicated in an absolute way yet are anchored to an incoherent worldview. That is foolishness! Do you or I have this problem? Do our family and friends have this problem? This is why we must intentionally consider our worldview instead of living in ignorance, blown across the ocean of life by the wind and waves! Keep in mind that just because something speaks of non-physical or non-scientific elements does not automatically make it incoherent. It must first be tested against the evidence at hand.
At this point in my life, I agree with Ravi Zacharias when he says, “The Christian worldview is the only worldview that answers all 4 categories coherently AND gives you the ability to disagree with it.”
What about your worldview? Are you ready and willing to live and die by it? I am!
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