64. WORLDVIEW

If you have followed many of the TTS CLUES and have asked yourself the question at the end of each one, you are likely to have responded with a particular worldview. This post seeks to stimulate your thinking about that worldview.

A world view or worldview is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual’s or society’s knowledge and point of view. A world view can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics. (Wikipedia)

Barta Research asked research participants for levels of agreement on issues related to one’s worldview. To what extent would you agree with the following statements?

· All people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being.

· Meaning and purpose come from becoming one with all that is.

· A belief must be proven by science to know it is true.

· The material world is all there is.

· Meaning and purpose come from working hard to earn as much as possible so you can make the most of life.

· No one can know for certain what meaning and purpose there is to life.

· What is morally right or wrong depends on what an individual believes.

· Private property encourages greed and envy.

· The government, rather than individuals, should control as many of the resources as necessary to ensure that everyone gets his/her fair share.

· If the government leaves businesses alone, businesses will mostly do what’s right.

· God helps those who help themselves.

Q: If you ponder these statements and then consider your level of agreement or disagreement, how would you describe your worldview?

With the billions of neurons, myriads of synaptic connections, and vast numbers of hormones and neurotransmitters that enable the transmission of signals in response to new experiences, our brains are always at our service, processing what we find meaningful and forging maps that translate our experience into meaning.

The culture and subcultures to which we are exposed inform the brain for that mapping. Our brains incorporate the moral code of our particular culture. With that environmental impact as well as our genetic coding and its information storehouse, our brain determines what is true for each of us.

The principles and habits we internalize from our experiences shape our personal choices of what is right and wrong in addition to how we behave in light of those choices.

Our personal worldview emerges from all of that. Worldview means the framework of ideas and beliefs by which we view, interpret, and interact with the world. Our worldview is the imprint on the brain formed from the breadth and depth of our experiences that guide our responses, decisions, and actions.

Q: How would you describe your worldview?