Instruction
#(Worldview Paper) The first worldview paper assignment requires you to describe your worldview based on your response to the diagnostic questions below.
1. What is ultimate reality? What is the source of everything? Asking these questions does not mean that there is a definitive answer. Some worldviews may hold the belief that there is no intelligible answer to these questions.
2. Is the nature of the world eternal or does it have a beginning? Is it good or evil or something else? Is it orderly or chaotic, intelligible or absurd?
3. What is a human being? Do human beings have only a body, a body and a soul, or something else? Are we good or evil or amoral? Are we able to acquire knowledge of the world and of God? If so, how is this attained? What is the source of the problem or the problems that we face? What is the solution to the problem or problems?
4. What happens to a person at death?
5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6. What is the nature of our morality? How do we know right from wrong?
7. What is the meaning of human history? Is there a Meta-narrative? Another way of asking this question is whether this world view believes that there is The Story that tells how we got here and why we are here.
8. What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview?
Discussion #1
According to Stephen Waldman, what are “Nones”? What do they believe? How do they characterize a growing trend in belief in the United States? Why do you think a majority of these individuals are coming from traditional religious backgrounds?
Discussion #2
What is appealing about Deism to “Nones” and others? What do you think they are rebelling against in traditional Christian Theism? According to Christian Theism, what are Deists missing?