Worldview

Every human being lives with a set of beliefs. This set of beliefs constitutes a worldview. Every human being believes something. We cannot live without having beliefs. Our beliefs from the “structure” of our minds. Our worldview is the structure of our mind.

Our mind is the non-physical part of our humanity where our beliefs are stored and organized. Our mind gives us the ability to make plans and decisions and choices to either love or hate; to receive or reject.

With our mind we organize our beliefs. We categorize our beliefs according to the level of commitment we give to them. Not to be too melodramatic, but some people have beliefs that they would die for. Most of our beliefs are not held with that degree of devotion.

We will, however, defend our beliefs in the face of opposition. We may choose to make a friend an enemy when he or she comes to deny what we believe. Or, if our beliefs are not quite that worthy, we may choose to extinguish them–to believe them no longer.

Beliefs that form our worldview have varying degrees of value to us. If we think of value in terms of money (cost), some of our beliefs are worth a billion dollars and some of our beliefs are worth less than five cents. The ones that are worth (to us at least) a billion dollars exert a great deal more power over our choices than the ones we value at less than five cents.

To eschew our beliefs that were once foundational to our existence involves a very costly worldview shift. These sorts of shifts in worldview come only at great personal cost that cannot be compensated for with money.

For example, some people put a very high value on marriage. They meet someone, come to love that person, and eventually get married. They flourish in constructing a relationship that one day produces a family and living happily ever after.

Yet the hope is shattered by someone’s unfaithfulness. What leads to this unfaithfulness can only truthfully be described as a very costly change of the value of marriage (at least to the one who chooses to be unfaithful). In a person’s mind the value of marriage in general, and their personal value of marriage in particular, is reduced to the point that the marriage must end.

Worldview is in play in all of our situations in life. Obviously some of our situations are much more consequential than others. But we all move through life making decisions and formulating plans that are rooted in what we believe our lives should be. I suspect that most worldviews hold rather fast to the belief that personal pleasure is the highest good. So they will pursue pleasure as if it was the highest good they could achieved. The value one places on his or her personal pleasure will be revealed in what they  “spend” in order to achieve what they desire most. Sometimes the expense is stated in terms of money. Sometimes the expense involves sharply decreasing the value of a relationship that has less potential for personal pleasure than another relationship offers.

Worldview is about beliefs: how deeply do we hold to them? Worldview is also about value: where on the continuum of value do we put our beliefs? The value we put on our beliefs is revealed by what we are willing to sacrifice in order to hold fast to them.