Worldview: Why is it Important?

Worldview: a person’s beliefs and assumptions about reality. It’s the lens through which they look at everyday life. It informs their daily choices – perhaps not what cereal they choose to eat in the mornings (though it’s possible, since paleo relies on an evolutionary worldview), but rather things like voting on social matters, what they choose to volunteer for, what they spend money on, or what hobbies they pursue.

The foundations of worldview are found in these questions:

-What is God?

-What is man?

-What is reality?

A society’s worldview affects personal values, which affect behavior, which affect culture.

Supposing a society’s worldview included a belief that demon’s whispered evil things into the left ear. That society might believe that the left ear heard only evil things, so they might cut it off, and you get a society of people with only their right ear intact. Or, instead they might only take advice if the person giving it to them was standing on their right. Or they might walk around with a cork in their left ear. An insult aimed at a person who made poor choices might go something like, “You must have been listening through your left ear!”

Laugh at my superstitious example if you want. Such a result is fairly inconsequential – though if demons really did do such a thing, it would be an entirely different matter. Let’s compare something more relevant: man being made in the image of God vs. man being an accident of nature.

If mankind is made in the image of God, as the book of Genesis informs us, then what does that say about the value of a human being?

No other creature in heaven or on earth is made in the likeness of God, and no other beings are loved so much by their Creator. Did you realize that not even the angels are as special? There’s no plan of salvation for them. In speaking of the prophets and of the gospel, Peter mentions that “even angels long to look into these things” (1 Peter 1:12). God didn’t die to save the fallen angels; he came to save us. He took the punishment that his justice required so that we wouldn’t have to. Being made in the likeness of God has a number of implications beyond this.

If mankind is not created, but randomly appeared through natural processes, then what does that say about the value of a human being?

In such an instance, a person’s value would be determined, perhaps, by their contribution to the gene pool, or by their contribution to whatever is valuable to their society. Maybe it’s strength, as in ancient Sparta, or maybe it’s art and philosophy, as it was in ancient Athens. Whatever it is, we eventually realize that if there’s no higher authority than ourselves, we can do whatever we want to other people. Or maybe we end our existence prematurely, falsely believing that life has no meaning or purpose.

These two basic worldviews are reflective of the mindsets of the Hebrews and the Greeks. In my next post, we’ll explore the mindset of those two civilizations and how they still affect us today.