by Dan Frye

Created on: March 13, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

The Importance and Influence of one's worldview

Well before I describe the importance of a worldview, I would like to define the term worldview', or as some might say zeitgeist'. A worldview is "A collection of intellectual, emotional, or spiritual grids, or paradigms, that have developed through conscious and unconscious acceptance or rejection of concepts or beliefs, and that form a filter system through which the separate data of reality are processed and organized by the individuals that share this particular way of seeing.'" So by this definition we can understand that everyone has a worldview, whether or not they know that they have a worldview or even want if they want one. A worldview is made of assumptions that can only be changed by faith. Worldview assumptions are rarely acknowledged openly, questioned or challenged by people who hold them. No worldview is totally open-minded but all worldviews involve narrowing of the mind and every worldview has strict and inflexible rules or absolutes that must never be broken. Everyone has a worldview and often the worldview is shared by some and not by others. So to understand the importance of worldviews we need to understand that, one worldview is of no more value than another. However to suggest that every worldview is right would be Idealistic and nave because in context to peoples surrounds they could be right, but that doesn't make their views correct. Now that we can understand that in context peoples views are right, we can also understand the sensitivity needed to pursue an argument about their views. I would like to reiterate that peoples worldviews can be unconscious and inbuilt, through their up bringing and culture.

So to answer the question, why are worldviews important? I would have to start by suggesting that if one didn't have a worldview, they also wouldn't have a moral foundation. A worldview can simply be the difference between right and wrong, so therefore it is important to have this distinction. Consequently, in this case ones worldview is important because of moral decisions but this can translate to other issues of worldviews. For example, wars are fought over worldviews, all it takes is a misunderstanding or a conflicting difference in idea and countries are at war. In that case lets see how it gets to this stage of velocity and seriousness. Firstly how do we place governments? Well people vote for parties that understand them and parties that agree with their key ideals or we might even

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