What are humans,
why we are here, and what is our purpose in life? What are your goals
for life? When you make decisions about using time — it's the stuff
life is made of — what
are your values and
priorities? *
What can we know, and how? and
with how much certainty?
Does reality include only matter/energy,
or is there more?
Some worldview questions are about
God: Can we know whether God exists? Does
God exist? If
so, what characteristics does God have, and what relationship with the universe?
Have miracles occurred in the past, as claimed in the Bible, and do they occur
now? Are natural events produced and guided by God? Was the
universe self-creating, or did God create it? Was it totally self-assembling
by natural process, or did God sometimes create in miraculous-appearing ways? Does
God communicate with us (mentally and spiritually) in everyday life, and through
written revelation, as in the Bible? What
is God's role in history? Is there
a purpose and meaning in history, for each of us individually and for all
of us together, or is life just a long string of things happening? What
happens after death?
We'll look at these questions and others, plus practical applications: how do worldviews affect decisions and actions in everyday life, for individuals and societies? what should we teach students about worldviews, and how, and why?
A person's worldview is affected by many factors — by their inherited characteristics, background experiences and life situations, the values, attitudes, and habits they have developed, and more — and these vary from one person to another. Therefore, even though some parts of a worldview are shared by many people in a community, other parts differ for individuals.
* Carol Hill says, "By ‘worldview’ I mean the basic way of interpreting things and events that pervades a culture so thoroughly that it becomes a culture's concept of reality — what is good, what is important, what is sacred, what is real. Worldview is more than culture, even though the distinction between the two can sometimes be subtle. It extends to perceptions of time and space, of happiness and well-being. The beliefs, values, and behaviors of a culture stem directly from its worldview."
This area looks at several aspects of World Views: Christian Stewardship of Life as a Worldview plus Christian Apologetics and the "tolerance" of Postmodern Relativism |
This home page for World
Views, written by Craig Rusbult, is
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/views/index.html