Your worldview is the lens through which you understand the world around you. Like language and culture, it’s natural for us to acquire parts of our worldview from those around us: parents, teachers and friends. Everyone has a worldview, but not everyone has their own.
The ideas that worldviews address are so fundamental, if taken seriously, they will necessarily inform the full gamut of your beliefs. The basis for your worldview is formed by your answers to questions such as:
- How did we come to be?
- Is there purpose in reality?
- Do good and evil really exist?
- Do we have freedom of the will?
- Is there anything beyond the physical?
A consistent and well considered worldview is essential to becoming a reasonable person. This relational coherency of reason and belief is a hallmark of a mind that learned how to think, rather than what to think. Have you put in the effort to integrate, evaluate and reinforce your own worldview or are you possessed by another’s ideologies?
If you’ve not yet engaged with the challenge of working toward a consistent worldview, you have a decision to make. In a causal reality such as ours, the truth is out there
. Events definitively unfolded in a specific sequence to bring us to the present and that history holds sway over the nature of reality. If you value truth and reason and go in search of them, you may find that you necessarily must hold some beliefs that you don’t like, or are counter cultural.
This commitment to intellectual honesty rather than relying on how you feel about every specific topic to determine your beliefs comes with some advantages. If your beliefs are reasonable and consistent, you’ll find they’re interwoven both with each other and reality, increasing your confidence in them. Conflicting beliefs become a splinter in your mind, nagging annoyingly until they’re identified and resolved. This dichotomy becomes a framework to more quickly and confidently evaluate new ideas as you’re exposed to them.
As an alternative, you can opt out of reason. At this time in our history, perhaps more than any other, living your life based on society's ideological whims is socially praiseworthy. Do what feels right. Speak your truth. Believe whatever you want to believe. The cost comes with rampant and inescapably conflicting convictions, but if your mind is numb, splinters are easily ignored. The choice is yours.
Absolute certainty is not on offer here, in reality, there is very little that can be known with complete certainty, but much we can reasonably believe with a high degree of confidence. These beliefs are warranted and capable of withstanding much skeptical scrutiny when maintained consistently.