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Have you ever thought about your worldview? Have you ever really examined it, tested it, poked holes in it?

What is a worldview anyway?

Simply, a worldview is a set of beliefs that you hold true and live by. It’s a special pair of goggles that you put on every morning that allows you to see the world through your version of reality.

A worldview can be conscious or subconscious -- consistent or inconsistent -- true, partially true, or entirely false. Whether we realize it or not, worldviews are fundamental to our lives. They provide the foundation for our moral values and corresponding actions.

Our worldview provides the holistic perspective from which we interpret ambiguous evidence. When confronted with more than one plausible interpretation, we always interpret evidence in a manner consistent with how we already see the world.

There’s a major problem associated with worldviews. No worldview represents total knowledge. No human knows 100% of everything. In fact, Thomas Edison is thought to have said that “we don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.” And yet, remarkably, we all have a worldview -- a crazy mix of knowledge, speculation and ignorance. Of course, this means that worldviews can be wrong: even if I have all of the knowable facts down tight, I can still err in some of my speculations.

Consider this... From our observation point, it seems rather obvious that the sun moves around the earth. It appears to rise in the east every morning and set in the west every evening. A person who was ignorant of modern astronomy would find the most indisputable proof that the sun revolves around the earth each and every day. Without modern technology, someone could have all of the knowable facts down tight and still think that the sun circles the earth. And this, of course, was the case for thousands of years.

So, what’s my point? A perfectly rational worldview can be terribly wrong. Even the most educated person alive can hold a false view of reality. So, I ask again, have you really examined your worldview lately? Is your belief system really supported by reality?

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -- Socrates

Said differently:
“The unexamined worldview is not worth believing.”

Just Thinking,

Randall Niles