Hard Questions: How to Make Sense of the World

Answer these seven questions and you’ll discover what’s at the bottom of all your thoughts about God, yourself and the world. Part of a series on truth.

At the base of your all your thoughts…all your contemplations about God, yourself and the world around you…is a worldview.

What’s a Worldview?

A worldview is nothing more than a set of assumptions which you hold about the basic makeup of your world.

So, what is YOUR worldview?

One way to get at it, according to James Sire in his book , is to see it as your essential, rock-bottom answers to seven basic questions.

You might find answering these questions rewarding. Even gratifying. Then again, you might find what you uncover puzzling…

Possibly even traumatic.

However, I believe it’s very important to take the time to carefully answer these questions. Self-analysis can lead you to a more vivid, meaningful life.

I mean, what could be more important than discovering what you believe about God, the universe, yourself and the world around you?

IS there anything more important? I don’t think so.

But you decide.

Seven Questions You Must Answer to Make Sense of the World

So, take some time right now to answer these questions–whether in the comments, on your blog or on paper–and get to the bottom of your worldview.

 1. What is prime reality–the really real?

2. What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

3. What is a human being?

4. What happens to a person at death?

5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?

6. How do we know what is right and wrong?

7. What is the meaning of human history?

In the end, you’ll probably find you fall into one of two camps: super naturalist or naturalist. God exists or only the universe exists…

One pushes for a sufficient reason behind the universe. One is satisfied with the universe. (See, theist and atheist alike are theologians.)

During a debate with Christian philosopher F. C. Coplestone, agnostic Bertrand Russell said, “I should say that the universe is just there, and that’s all.”

And that’s just the way it is.

Brute reality.

Brute God

And even though theists like me who see God as the self-existent sufficient cause for the universe take it one step further and say, “God is just there…and that’s all,” like the naturalist I have to conclude, “That’s just the way it is.”

Brute God. Sort of.

Ultimately, our worldview doesn’t prove whether we are right or wrong. It just identifies the orientation of our heart. What’s yours? I’ll share mine next week.

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