Worldviews

We each have a set of basic values and beliefs about the world. These values and beliefs are filters though which
we perceive the world and interpret experience. A person’s values may affect not only how much importance she
gives to facts, but also what she takes to be the facts. Moral and religious beliefs are part of a person’s worldview
and they often clash with the views of others.
Some worldviews include the notion that other worldviews must be extinguished and that theirs should become
the dominant worldview. Such worldviews do not accept compromise and view those who would plead for
tolerance of other worldviews as being part of a conspiracy to undermine them by encouraging free thinking. Ultraconservative
religious groups are characterized by such a worldview.
You may think that encouraging self-esteem is a proper value for education and raising children. Someone else
might consider this the work of Satan and consider you a threat. Some, like the worldview advanced by Christian
evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (The New Millennium, 1990), would consider the encouragement to
become a critical thinker to be part of a liberal conspiracy. Some worldviews think diversity and tolerance are
virtues; others consider them vices. Some worldviews are purely secular. As they do not include religious values,
such worldviews hinder the ability to understand the motivations and behaviors of those whose worldviews are
primarily religious. Most Americans, whether their worldviews are religious or secular, have a difficult time
understanding the motivations of terrorists who intentionally kill civilians, especially if the acts are carried out by
suicide bombers. To us, such behavior seems insane and we are apt to think that only deranged people could
commit such atrocities. But to many people such acts are considered heroic and virtuous.
Sometimes people with clashing worldviews, like ultra-conservative Christians and ultra-liberal atheists, might
use the same words to mean something quite different. Both might claim to value freedom, but the one may mean
freedom from sinful and wicked influences, while the other may mean freedom to do what the other thinks is sinful
or wicked. When some worldviews clash, there may be no middle ground; agreement may be impossible. The best
one can hope for in such cases is that each side will try to understand where the other is coming from.
Our fallibility and bias, as well as our disagreements about fundamental values and principles, must limit the
expectation that critical thinking will resolve all our disputes. This should be obvious since some worldviews are
contradictory and some discourage critical thinking in favor of mindless obedience to some ancient text or modern
guru.