(Ideas and information based off A Clear View, by Keith Ogorek, Chapter 1)
As you look at your worldview and compare it to someone else, you will realize it is different. You may agree and view some ideas the same way, but you probably came to that conclusion a little differently then another person. This means that your worldview is very personal and this brings me to my first point, how is your worldview formed?
Like I stated before, your worldview is very personal. Even if you have been influenced by your family, friends, or culture, you have formed those thoughts personally. Every experience you have too can change your worldview in a way you may not realize; this also makes it personal. You may not recognize it at first, but your mind takes those perceptions and forms an idea out of it. Those ideas, with the knowledge you have, form your worldview.
In the book, A Clear View, written by Keith Ogorek, he says that there are three major components that contribute to a person's worldview. The first one being how they view God. Even if the person does not believe in God, he still has a belief about whether there is a God, or how powerful or knowledgeable he is. The second one is how someone views Man. Questions like, is he basically good or basically evil, does he have free will, and how much authority does he have? The last one is how a person views Existence. Where did everything begin, when is the world going to end, what is truth, and what is real? These are some complicated ideas that you might not be familiar with or might not even realize you've thought about them, but you have.
As I looked at all those questions and thought about what question might have the most influence on a person, I came to one conclusion. I believe that your whole worldview is founded on the question of what defines truth? Now I know that I believe that God is truth which means the Bible is truth. If you do not believe in God, than this question might have to be thought about differently than I am going to talk about. If you know the Bible is truth and God is the Truth, than you know he exists, that he created the world, that he is loving and all knowing God, and many more things. You also know that he created man in his own image and that loves and cares about you. This covers basically all three of those concepts. Now if you do not believe in an absolute truth, then there is a whole different discussion to have.
In these three components there is something that Keith Ogorek calls the "Life Picture." The Life Picture is "the perspective or conviction we have about the common things of life that is informed and influenced by our worldview." Some of these things are money, work, family, education, government, music, and art. All of our views on these areas impact our worldview. You can actually tell what a persons worldview is by listening to what they think about these topics. Every one of these areas is important in impacting our worldview, but one that I hold higher than the rest is family.
You are defined by your family and in the same way, you define your family. The relationships you have with your parents or siblings effect the way you view the rest of the areas I mentioned earlier. If you grew up in a loving, Christian home, your worldview is probably very similar to mine because we grew up on the same values. Our parents view money, education, or the government one way and usually our views are very close or parallel to their own. This is why I think your family holds a important role in what you believe.
These ideas are the way a person forms their view on our world or our worldview. As you read through this article, I hope you thought a little more about what makes you believe the way you do. I would love feedback from you about anything you agree or disagree with.
