Christian Worldview

Worldview Essay
Many people go about their lives believing and practicing different religions. These beliefs usually develop through how an individual interprets or perceives reality, also known as a worldview. Everyone may not follow a certain religion or believe in the same God or a God at all, but everyone has a set of views and beliefs about the universe and life in general that they live their life by. Whether it is conscious or subconscious, everyone possesses a worldview.
A Christian worldview is a more specific belief system that consists of many aspects. It is a view that mediates from our understanding and experiences of the world and I believe that my worldview generally matches up to that of a Christian worldview, but has its differences. Christians generally believe that God is the center and origin of all things, he is self-defining and he created everyone for a specific purpose. For one, I do believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I am also a follower of the Christian faith. However, I am still young and trying to discover different aspects of myself and how I see and interpret the world. Since I am still experiencing the world and seeing different aspects of it daily, my worldview is constantly changing. What I perceive as my worldview has its similarities and differences from a Christian worldview.
For example, there are two views to the development of the universe. One is that the universe was an accident and just happened through what is known as the Big Bang Theory. The other view is that there is some supernatural power that gives us order and created the world and everything in it. These are two completely different views, but they are continuously feuded between followers of the faith and scientists. A Christian as well as other religious denominations would believe that there is a paranormal being that created the universe. In the bible it states “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1-2).
So based on the proof provided to them by the bible they have faith and believe that God, the supernatural being, created everything by the work of his hands. I however, believe in the combination of the two. I do not believe that the world just came about as a complete accident. The world is too precise and intricate to have just come about randomly. So, I just cannot wrap my mind over the fact that people seem to believe that everything was just in the right place and at the right time and happened coincidentally. I also do not believe that God the supernatural power came and wished the whole universe and everything that it contains to be and poof it was there. That does not seem like it could be realistic either. I do think that the Big Bang Theory did indeed occur, but that God triggered it to occur. I believe that God brought together all the substances and material needed to create earth and everything earth consists of and clashed it together as in what scientists deem as the Big Bang Theory. So my view on how the earth was created is one way how my worldview may differ from the standard biblical worldview.
Christians also believe there is a specific purpose to why each individual was created by God. This is an example of how my worldview relates to the biblical worldview. I also believe that people were placed on this earth for a specific purpose, but always for good. People may try to say that because some people come out to be bad and not good hearted there must not be a God. If he was all loving and nice why would he create bad people and all this corruption? I myself also pondered this question and figured out that there is always good and evil. Yes, there is a God, but there is a devil too and the devil uses persuasion on people which accounts for all the sin and evil that goes on in the world. People in my view, are created for good and to spread the word of God to those who have fell into evil so more and more can in turn enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There are three major tests that Cosgrove uses to critique various worldviews. The first is called the test of evidence and it tests whether the worldview fit the facts and can be proven to be true. In comparison to my worldview there is evidence through the bible that supports Christianity and how God and Jesus are real to a certain extent. Many people would however not consider God to be true because there are no facts to prove it since the bible was written by followers of the faith, so I think it partially fails the test. The second test is the test of logical consistency, and my worldview probably does not comply with this test because not everyone is going to believe or follow all aspects of my worldview. I in my belief, branch out to different religious views which make my way of interpreting things a bit more liberal. So, even though my worldview consistently matches that of a Christian worldview I do disagree and venture out with my own beliefs as well. The last major test is the test of existential repugnance. This test asks whether or not it is possible to live in the world following the worldview one follows. I do believe my worldview passes this test because all my beliefs have been heard about and are shared by other people. There is no set worldview per say; sometimes an individual’s worldview can have a number of different characteristics from different belief systems. My worldview may not be the best or pass the tests, but they are my beliefs and it is how I view the world we live in.
A worldview also determines and influences many aspects of your life such as one’s stress, happiness, self-confidence, success in life etc. According to Cosgrove, from Foundation of Christian beliefs, “A worldview is a set of assumptions or beliefs about reality that affect how we think and how we live.” My thoughts and actions entirely rely on my worldview. They each come hand in hand. Since a worldview is how one sees and believes things they are going to have an effect on what one believes in. For example, since gay marriage is against my religion and looked down upon, I also feel that gay marriage is wrong. I however, will not judge or discriminate a gay person just because I believe it is wrong like other people might do. Yes I do not agree with their lifestyle and choice in companionship, but I will live and let live. It is not affecting me as a person, so why bother discriminating them. It makes absolutely no sense to me. This is a part of my worldview and it shows how different it is since I have adopted it to my views and what I believe through my experience.
Another example of how my worldview affects my thoughts and actions would be how I handle difficult situations. Since I grew up in a stressful and abusive environment I always felt trapped. Instead of just looking at the negative and giving up with life and letting the person who has hurt me for so long win, I overcame my obstacle. Because of my experience as a child I will never give up and keep fighting for my happiness and what I believe to be right no matter what gets in my way or tries to stop me. So it is true how an individual’s experiences help not only shape their life, but how they choose to perceive life as well.
Throughout this course I do not believe my worldview to have changed. I just am more aware of what a worldview is now. I was not aware that everyone has their own worldview and no one belief system is the same. Since people go through diverse events in their life and experience different things people will inevitable perceive things differently. I also learned that I can have a combination of a Christian worldview and a mixture of other denomination worldviews to make a belief system unique to me.
All in all, a worldview comes about through certain life experiences and beliefs about themselves and the world. People use other worldviews in order to develop the foundation for theirs and during the span of their life add and reject certain parts of their beliefs. It is a part of life and everyone goes through this whether it is intentionally or unintentionally.