Why Are Worldviews a Key?

A “worldview” is the mental orientation we have in interpreting reality, our universe and the forces involved.  It directs the way one processes information so that it can safely fit into a person’s existing understanding.  A person’s worldview will color how they look at mankind and the human condition.  It will affect how one looks at suffering and death.  It will offer up scenarios of what the good forces and bad forces are in the world. And everyone has one!

When it comes to the subject of origins, worldviews especially come into play.  The diversity of opinions and theories come less from data and more from the interpretation of data, which is wholly dependent upon worldview.  An example of this relating to origins:  does one’s worldview include a concept of God?  And is that a concept of a large god (above nature) or perhaps of a smaller god (subservient to natural law)?  If there is no room for “God” in a worldview at all, then generally the forces of nature are the only ones to consider as operating.  That is, nature created and organized itself.  There would be nothing “superior to nature” (supernatural). This view is called in science “materialism,” meaning material is all there is.