The Seven Worldviews

It's been a busy weekend, so I'll keep this short.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the foundational questions of worldview is “What is God?” There are seven different answers to that question, as presented by Norm Geisler in When Skeptics Ask; a few have their own subtypes. Here they are:

1. Theism: God exists.

               -Polytheism: many gods exist.

2. Deism: God exists, but isn’t involved in the world.

3. Pantheism: God is everything, and everything is God.

4. Panentheism: God is developing/evolving with the rest of the world.

5. Finite Godism: God exists, but is limited or imperfect.

               -Open Theism: God doesn’t know the future.

6. Agnosticism: we can’t know if God exists.

7. Atheism: God does not exist.

Knowing these concepts of God can help you identify them in the culture around you. Can you think of a popular science fiction franchise that is steeped in pantheism? (Hint: “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us…it binds the galaxy together.”) What reasons might a panentheist have for supporting humanitarian projects? Do you know of any worldviews that are a mix of two or more of these?