So, as we are going through the theme of "WHY", we've got to work through some of the basics. Today, we're talking about "Worldview" (also known as your view of the world). This boils down to the lens through which you see the world and how it works. Your worldview is important because it determines how you live - the choices you make, your understanding of other people's choices, and how your life fits in the big picture of the world. Whether we know what it is or not, each of us has a worldview.
For example, think about the classic cup with water analogy. If you look at a cup that has water in it at the halfway mark, and you think it is half full, then you are an optimist. Your worldview tends to look at the positive side of things and make decisions based on that. If you think it is half empty, then you are a pessimist. Your worldview tends to look at the negative side of things and make decisions based on that. The volume of the cup doesn't change, it is all about how you see it.
I've been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Warzone recently and there are two main game types I play: Plunder and Battle Royale. The rules for these games are very different, and both require a very different playstyle to win. In Plunder, you have infinite respawns so running into a firefight blasting away can be fine. Its a very fast-paced playstyle. In Battle Royale, however, you only get one respawn (if you win the gulag or your team is nice and buys you back). It is a lot riskier to run into firefights, and you are punished more even if you get to respawn because you lose all the weapons you found. For the most part, BR is a much slower-paced playstyle. Now, bringing this back to worldviews, if I try to play Plunder with a BR mindset, I am almost certainly going to lose - I'll be too cautious and won't get enough money to win. Similarly, if I try to play BR with a Plunder mindset, I'll be too reckless and die quickly (unless I'm really good, which I am not). In order to win, I have to play with the right mindset, or worldview. And the same is true in life. If we want to do well in life, we have know how best to live - we have to have the correct worldview.
The question is, how do we know what the correct worldview is? How can we know the truth?
We can figure out through a combination of observation, reasoning, and faith. We look at the world around us, see what we can, and then compare that with how different worldviews explain it. For the sake of this message, let's focus on two opposing worldviews: atheism and Christianity. Atheism is the belief that there is no God, and Christianity believes that there is not only a God, but that He came down in human form as Jesus Christ and offered His own life to save ours on the cross. This is the God of the Bible.
Atheism first. An atheist is someone who does not believe there is a God, or any kind of higher power at work in the world. They believe that the world just happened to come into existence, somehow (they offer some explanations, but those only lead to more questions). Most of them believe that humans came about through evolution - that life began randomly many billions of years ago and over the course of those billions of years it evolved slowly into all of the different life forms we see today. They do not believe there is any reason why we are here (why we exist) and that when we die, that's it. They do not believe in life after death. IF they are right about all of this, then that means a lot for us. Without God, or an afterlife, there is no real reason to live a good life. There is no reason why we shouldn't just do whatever we want to whomever we want because there aren't any lasting consequences (except maybe death). So basically, if you can get away with it, do it. By the way, this worldview makes things like mass murder, genocide, and war okay, because there is no real "right" or "wrong" without God. Our idea of "right" and "wrong" would be just a bunch of rules someone made up. Finally, this worldview also means that none of us are special in any way and there is no point to our existence. We have no purpose.
Christianity, on the other hand, believes that there is a God - an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving and personal God who created the universe and created life. He made humans special, in His image, and put us in charge of the earth. He has established what is right and wrong, and we answer to Him for what we do in this life. IF we are right, then there is an afterlife and our choices now affect where we go. He has given us instructions on how we should live and how we should treat other people, and He holds us accountable for what we do here on earth.
Both of these views are looking at the same world, but draw different conclusions. And which one you hold to will change how you make choices and how you treat people. How we see other people, how we see ourselves, and how we choose to live and act are all based on our worldview. From what I have seen in the world, I think the Christian worldview has it right. The Bible teaches us that while God made the world perfect in the beginning, the people turned against Him and messed it up, bringing sin and death into the world. It has been in decay ever since and is waiting for God to return and restore it. Our world is structured and designed in such a specific way that it takes more faith to believe it happened by chance than it does to believe that God made it that way. And we are so unique from every other creature on this planet that is hard to imagine we all came from evolution. The evidence points toward the Christian worldview, in my opinion.
So, what is YOUR worldview? How do YOU look at the world around you? How do you decide what is right and wrong? Why are you here? What will happen to you when you die? These are all important questions that EVERY person needs to answer. Having a poor worldview is like wearing sunglasses at night - you can't see a thing and you're going to get hurt.
So, if you are not sure WHAT your worldview is, below are 7 questions that will help you get to the heart of how you see the world:
1. What is prime reality? (What is really real?)
2. What is the nature of the world or universe around us? (Was it created, did it just pop into being, is it ordered, chaotic, does it even exist?)
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens when a person dies?
5. Is it possible to know absolute truth? (is there truth that is true for everyone, and can we know it?)
6. How do we know what is right and wrong?
7. What is the meaning of human history? (or, who is in charge of history?)
I know this post was a bit longer than normal and definitely on the heavy side. Don't let the heaviness of the topic stop you from thinking about this, though. Your worldview affects EVERY part of your life, so it is definitely important. Anyway, see you next time!
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