Objective Truth and Worldview: Three Reasons Why Worldviews Cannot Be Ignored

Have you ever been in an argument where you disagreed so strongly with someone that you couldn’t even comprehend how they could possibly be so wrong?

I don’t ask this in a flippant or insincere way. Most likely, the other person was thinking the same thing about you! While much could be said about the nature of disagreement, one crucial reason people differ so strongly about ideas is that we operate under different “worldviews.”

What is a Worldview?

Simply put, a worldview is how you view the world. Not just this planet, but everything. Think of it like an overall philosophy of life. Examples of worldviews include Naturalism, Postmodernism, Eastern Mysticism, and the Biblical Worldview. Our worldviews inform how we think about life, meaning, purpose, existence, ultimate reality, and more. And although people often think about what they believe, they don’t often think about how they think. This needs to change. Here are three reasons why worldviews matter tremendously in our time.

Learn More about Worldviews with Matthew Tingblad

1. We Cannot Afford to Get Our Worldview Wrong

You may think that worldviews are matters of preference. For example, someone who cares deeply about nature is a naturalist, whereas someone who cares deeply about spirituality is an Eastern Mysticist. While our personalities can influence the worldviews we are drawn toward, worldviews are far more significant. For example, the Biblical worldview sees the world through the eyes of God, who made us in his image and calls us toward a purpose to know God through Jesus Christ. Naturalism, on the other hand, says there is no ultimate purpose to life, no God or gods, no spirits, no heaven or hell, and we are results of a blind process of nature. Depending on where you land, that will severely affect the way you understand life, politics, morality, value, and so forth. These issues are not insignificant!

The fact is, we cannot afford to get our worldview wrong. If we were made by God and designed for a purpose, then we actually harm ourselves by living life on our own terms. If we were meant to build our own meaning and purpose (an important feature of postmodernism), then we do harm to ourselves by following after a “god” who doesn’t even exist outside our own imagination. If morality isn’t real (an implication of naturalism and an assertion of nihilism), then nothing holds us back from a self-indulgent lifestyle, even at the expense of others. If there is a Heaven and hell, as some worldviews say, then we jeopardize our eternal destiny by shrugging our shoulders at the idea of spiritual truth.

2. A Right Worldview Gives Grounding in a Confusing World

Despite living in moderate levels of comfort compared with past generations, somehow, we are one of the most anxious and depressed generations to ever live. Of course, the reason for this is multifaceted and complicated. But don’t you suspect at least one significant reason is that we don’t know what’s up or down anymore?

Most people don’t think about worldviews. We kind of just… go with the flow. We live life. But to be passive about our worldview is to be like a ship without a rudder. Most Americans today don’t even have a single coherent worldview; they adopt a set of beliefs guided more by feelings than by real, rock-solid, thought-through truth to anchor us in this crazy world. Without coherence in life, our mental world becomes chaotic and unbalanced. Certainly, a bad mental world will influence our mental health.

3. Objective Truth and Worldview: Why Truth Still Matters

Sometimes I explain a worldview as a machine in your head. The job of that machine is to take information that you see and hear, and convert that into beliefs. Different machines give different beliefs. The problem is that not all beliefs are true, and not all machines are working properly.

Truth still matters. Maybe the idea of truth feels tired or cliché, but the fact remains that life is unlivable without truth and our belief in it. There is a truth about the pills to consume in our medicine cabinet, the number in our bank account, and what happens when we walk through a wall without first opening the door. There’s also a truth about the purpose of life, the nature of morality, the existence of God, and life after death. Worldviews matter because they try to get behind these important questions so that we think rightly and arrive at the truth.

Dive deeper into the Christian worldview with Jesus Film Project

So Which Worldview Is Right?

We have seen that worldviews matter, but not just any worldview. So which worldview is the right one?

That is a good next question to ask! Here at Sightline, we teach the Biblical worldview because we believe that worldview expresses reality as it actually is, and we are prepared to help you see that for yourself. If you, like me, are convinced that worldviews matter, I encourage you to explore more of our books and resources, such as our apologetics articles and our recent book, 12 Crucial Truths of the Christian Faith. You can even ask a specialist at our ministry who would be happy to help you explore the most important questions of life.