Thursday, June 12, 2008

Worldview Building Blocks


The basic building blocks of our way of looking at life make a world of difference in every area of our lives. Everybody has a worldview. Not everyone can define theirs, but we all utilize it everyday.


A worldview in its most foundational level answers the following questions:


  • What is really real?
  • Who is man?
  • What is man’s problem?
  • What is the solution?

The Christian answers these as follows.


  • God is really real. He is the foundation for all knowledge and truth.
  • Man is made in God’s image, yet is finite and created.
  • Man chose to do things his way and became separated from God
  • God provided His own Son to pay the price for mans sins and to restore man to a rightful relationship with God.


Out of a worldview come many subcategories and networks of thinking. Due to a person maintaining the validity of one foundational principal a whole series of mini-principals follow creating a complex worldview. It’s analogous to a pyramid; it starts narrow from the top and broadens as it nears the bottom. For the Christian the foundation starts at the top with God and broadens from that point downward. For the secular humanist one would need a circle for illustration purposes as reality starts and ends with man.


The subcategories affected by the building blocks of a worldview consist of history, politics, education, family, philosophy, morality, life, death, afterlife, and all the intricacies therein.


If our view of reality isn’t true then all areas of our life will be off kilter. We must examine our thinking to ensure that it lines up with reality. It is imperative to have the right blocks in place on which to build every other area of thought. The whole web of belief will blow away if it is not firmly rooted in truth.


Discussion for comments: What is your worldview and how did you arrive at it?

3 comments:

Je9Jeanine said...

"For the last 10 years I have studied why I believe what I believe and how to best communicate the Christian faith."

I would love to know some of your favorite books you have read on the subject. I have cracked open "Understanding the Times" it is so huge that I mossy through it a little at a time as I remember I am interested in it. Then I can hardly put it down, then I forget again for a while :). Maybe I will go pick it up again :)

Jeanine

Karla said...

My favorite authors on this topic are Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer.

As for specific books, I'd say "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel

"Jesus Among Other Gods" by Ravi Zacharias

"Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis

"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" By Frank Turek and Norman Geisler

"Beyond Opinion" by Ravi Zacharias's ministry team

DVD's I've purchased from www.rzim.org like "Apologetics for Then and Now"

"The God Who is There" by Francis Schaeffer

Those are the best I can think of off the top of my head.

Je9Jeanine said...

I am working on answering "What is your worldview and how did you arrive at it?" at my blog... Here
http://je9jeanine.blogspot.com/2008/06/worldview-building-blocks.html
Jeanine