Worldviews

Studies of ReligionMr Elliott

Do we all see the world the same way?

What influences the way we look at our experiences?How do these influences change the way we would answer the BIG questions?

This is our WORLD VIEW

What impacts on our Worldview?

• Family• History• Experience• Geography• Wealth• Culture• Religion

The BIG Questions

• Why are we here on earth?• Where did the order in the universe

come from?• Why do people (good people) suffer?• How can I be happy?• What happens to me when I die?• What happens to odd socks that

disappear in the wash?

Some World Views

• Semitic (Islam, Christianity, Judaism)• Eastern (Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto)• Individualism (or hedonism)• Captialism• Communism• Humanism• Consumerism• Scientific Rationalism

Paris Hilton Worldview

I am photographed:Therefore I amme

People who serve me

Cool stuff

Looks are everything

Shopping =Happiness

Features of a Religious Worldview

• Acknowledges a supernatural reality• Is ordered and purposeful• Is concerned for universal ‘good’• Seeks wisdom and understanding• Promotes discipline and ethics• Believes rituals to be imbued with

power• Holds life reverently – is life-centric

Semitic World View

• God is creator – ultimate, one, omnipotent

• History is linear• God and the universe is just• Humans imperfect and trying to grow

perfect• God enters and moves in human history

Eastern Worldview

• Many or no gods• Humans are ignorant of the true meaning of

life• Reality is cyclic, relative and illusory• Dualism of the physical and non-physical• Karma• The universe is uninterested in the

experience of humanity• Life is eternal (this is a bad thing!)

Recent disruption to World Views

• Renaissance• Enlightenment (European)• Industrial Revolution• World Wars I and II• Hiroshima• 1960s (dissent, individualism, the moon)• Computers / Internet• September 11 2001

Question

Is a religious worldview incompatible with

contemporary culturesand a modern life?