To Get the Right Results, Choose the Best Source
A worldview is a person’s beliefs about life and living that shapes how they see the world. We all have a worldview.
It forms from the earliest moments of our lives and comes from various sources, such as parents, schools, and friends. As we grow older, input from other sources influence this collection of guiding principles.
But most people are unaware of what their worldview is and how it formed.
Instead, we should develop our worldview with intention, seeking to craft a cogent set of guiding beliefs to direct what we think, say, and do.
Here are some sources of influence that people tap, often subconsciously, to form their worldview.
Public Opinion
What others think often informs what we think. This may not be bad, but it may not be good either.
If we were to surround ourselves with the right people and pick up their perspectives, it’s likely we’ll form a good worldview in the process. But it’s more likely a wider spectrum of people will also be a source of influence in our lives.
In this case, we risk falling victim to the pervasive influence of public opinion, vacillating between perspectives, which can change on the whim of ever-shifting attitudes.
In this way, public opinion will fail us when it comes to establishing our worldview. It will fail to keep us on course as we navigate life.
Social Media
In similar manner, social media influences what we think. It’s powerful, and it’s pervasive. It’s also dangerous.
Allowing social media to dictate what we think about our world will fill us with negative thoughts from whatever group talks the loudest and the most. Since this often comes from people on the fringes of society, it’s public opinion at its worst.
To whatever degree possible, get off social media. And if this isn’t feasible, certainly control it and limit access. Otherwise, it will control you. It will form your worldview, even if you don’t want it to.
Political Correctness
From public opinion and social media, we get the insidious notion of political correctness. Political correctness suggests there are words and phrases we shouldn’t say. It also dictates ways in which we should state ideas, along with how we may discuss them.
This limits discourse and enforces a social groupthink—reasoning and making decisions as a collective, often with unexamined perspectives and a noncritical conformity to the prevailing point of view.
Schools
The various options of formal education in our life should provide a reliable source to form our moral compass, our worldview. Yet most prove to be an unreliable teacher. This is because they’ve fallen victim to public opinion and political correctness.
Though schools should provide a framework where students can develop their own informed worldview, these institutions instead force students to adopt a collective mindset that leads learners astray.
These inputs to our worldview—public opinion, social media, political correctness, and schools—bombard us every day.
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If we don’t guard against their insidious influences on what we think, we will allow them to take over our mind and negatively influence our words and our actions. Sadly, this happens without us being aware of it.
Instead, we must form a different path and live a life with intention. Here are three more considerations to help us shape our worldview.
Family and Friends
Those people closest to us—our family and friends—can be a good source to guide us in informing our worldview. At least they should be. Yet, this presumes they have a good worldview guiding them.
Our Church
One potentially promising source for helping shape our worldviews is our church. As such, many people strive to form a Christian worldview.
This, of course, assumes that their church hasn’t caved into public opinion and political correctness. If it has, it becomes a useless compass that will surely lead us astray.
Because this influence comes from an institution we think we should be able to trust, we let it infiltrate us and lead us into corrupt thinking, following the societal pressures that we should avoid.
Bible
Our best source in developing a God-honoring worldview is the Bible. It’s a foundation we can trust, one that’s stable and not subject to the whims of public opinion and political correctness.
Scripture is a stable standard that can guide us in forming our worldview.
To do this, however, requires that we read it and study it and meditate on it.
As we do, we should surround ourselves with family, friends, and our church community who likewise seek the Bible as a source of truth to inform their worldviews.
With Scripture as a guide, we can move forward to develop an informed Biblical worldview that honors God and aligns with our faith.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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