Political Correctness and the Present Culture War

The struggle to discover our own faith, our own worldview, our beliefs about reality is what this book* is all about. To encourage us all to think in terms of worldviews, that is, with a consciousness of not only our own way of thought but also that of other people, so that we can first understand and then genuinely communicate with other in our pluralistic society.

WHAT IS A WORLDVIEW ?

A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic makeup of our world.

Everyone has a worldview. Whenever any of us thinks about anything--from a casual thought (Where did I leave my watch?) to a profound question (Who am I?)--we are operating within such a framework. In fact, it is only the assumption of a worldview--however basic or simple--that allows us to think at all.

Our own worldview…is generally unquestioned by each of us, rarely, if ever, mentioned by our friends, and only brought to mind when we are challenged by a foreigner from another ideological universe.

Another way to get at what a worldview is, is to see it as our essential, rock-bottom answers to the following seven questions:

What is prime reality--the really real?

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

What is a human being?

What happens to a person at death?

Why is it possible to know anything at all?

How do we know what is right and wrong?

What is the meaning of human history?

When stated in such a sequence, these questions boggle the mind. Either the answers are obvious to us and we wonder why anyone would bother to ask such questions, or else we wonder how any of them can be answered with any certainty. If we feel the answers are too obvious to consider, then we have a worldview but we have no idea that many others do not share it. We should realize that we live in a pluralistic world. What is obvious to us may be "a lie from hell" to our neighbor next door. If we do not recognize that, we are certainly naïve and provincial, and we have much to learn about living in today's world.

The fact is that we cannot avoid assuming some answers to such questions. We will adopt either one stance or another. Refusing to adopt an explicit worldview will turn out to be itself a worldview or at least a philosophic position. In short, we are caught. So long as we live, we will live either the examined or the unexamined life. It is the assumption of this book* that the examined life is better.