Personal Worldview - Essay Example

Personal Worldview Module Module ID: Worldviews refer to the ideas and opinions the people belonging to divergent ethno-racial backgrounds, religious faiths and socioeconomic statuses maintain about various natural, physical and social phenomena existing all around them. It also includes the thoughts and opinions about life and death, life after death, significance of faith, and the powers of the Creator etc. In simple words, worldview concentrates upon exploring the ontology, explanation, prediction, axiology, praxeology and epistemology about the origin and history of the universe and all the objects existing in it as well as related to it (Vidal, 2008:4). The theorists and researchers as well have always been interested since ever in exploring the history and origin of world views people have developed in their minds about countless issues, which have been being transferred from one generation to the other for the last several centuries. The researches reveal that the religious people, philosophers, intellectuals and thinkers have rendered valuable services in respect of making the minds of the people about various realities attributed to the universal phenomena. The worldview, according to Carol Hill, concentrates upon the basic way of interpreting things and events that pervades a culture so thoroughly that it becomes that culture’s concept of reality (The American Scientific Affiliation). Hence, the adherence of a large majority of the people to the norms, values, mores, taboos, traditions, customs, cult and festivals etc prevailing in some specific social establishment turns out to be decisive is respect of transferring the cultural traits from one generation to the other and so on (Macionis & Plummer, 2008). The transmission of traditional cultural traits is not confined to one particular region of the globe; on the contrary, the same practice has been in vogue in almost all social establishments of the world at large, which can also been observed by minutely examining the Christian religious teachings, traditions and moral values. Being the largest and most popular religion of the world in general, Christianity has experienced all the steps essential for establishing a strong worldview through chains of generations from 1st century onward. The adherents of Christianity make up the greatest religious community of the world. The belief system of the faith seeks inspiration from the Holy Scripture Bible, which is viewed to be the word of God sent from the Lord for the spiritual uplift and moral guidance of the humanity. Hence, the Bible can be stated as the finest and most reliable source of inspiration for the entire Christian community existing on the face of the earth. The Bible consists of Old and New Testaments, which concentrates upon the covenant made between God and the House of Jacob regarding the worship of God, love for Christ, obedience of the parents, and strict adherence to the commandments clearly mentioned in the Scripture are the source of a blissful life on the earth, as well as the only way to obtain eternal success in the life hereafter (Flannelly et al, 2008:4). Being the most authentic source of the Christian faith, Bible lays stress upon strict observance of patience, endurance, tolerance, fair play, justice and sacrifice. I have learned from the Scripture (Leviticus, 18-19). The same views have been endorsed by the saints and preachers that a true Christian should follow the commands of God by worshipping Him, and obeying one’s parents and elders. I was taught that the Christians are forbidden from imposing any hurt on others. Being a Christian, I abhor stealing, debauchery, extra marital relationships, homosexuality and hurting and harming the neighbors (Leviticus, 19: 7-16). The records of the Christ’s life and sayings, preserved in the minds and hearts of his followers, also endorsed the true teachings of Jesus, which were followed and transferred from one generation to the other on the one hand, and from the city of Nazareth to the vast deserts of Africa as well as in the mountainous zone and plains of the mighty Roman Empire. In addition, the great saints belonging to the earlier Christian eras including St. Perpetua, St. Ambrose, St. Monika, St. Augustine and several other great personalities rendered exemplary services in conveying and communicating the holy message of the religion to its followers and adherents gradually and continuously. The followers of Christian faith not only maintain sound belief in death and the eternal life in the Hereafter, but also argue that the true believers would be rewarded after their incarnation on the Resurrection Day by the Lord by granting them the permission to re-enter the blissful place i.e. the Eden Garden from where the first parents of humanity had been expelled because of their tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree on the temptations made by their arch-enemy Satan. Still an overwhelming majority of the masses gets involved into sinful acts, pardon of which requires a Savior so that the humanity could be forgiven for its misdeeds. Since the Christians have developed the doctrines of salvation and atonement, they strongly believe that their entire sinful life would be pardon by the Creator because of their unflinching love for Jesus Christ; consequently, the Christians are not afraid of the torment and anguish after death. Advent of new faiths, scientific inventions and discoveries and revolutions bring formidable alterations in the worldviews. Famous sociologist August Comte has exclaimed three phases or stages of human evolution, which include theological, metaphysical and positive stage (Ritzer, 2002). In the first stage, people maintain unconditional faith on religion and religious personalities, and act upon the worldviews in the light of the prevailing religious cult. The second stage observes the belief in abstract ideas, where opinions are examined in the light of abstract ideas. Comte declares the last stage as the era of positivism, where logic is applied in order to accept or reject a theory or notion; the same is applied to religion and belief systems. Christian faith flourished in all parts of the globe during the medieval times and pre-modern era. The followers of Christianity loved to adopt the teachings of their faith without making any arguments regarding the truthfulness of the religion. However, the things started taking drastic modifications in the modern and post-modern times. Although the religion still enjoys imperative status as a central element of modern life, which shapes people’s world-views, moral standards, family lives, and in many nations, their politics, yet in many Western nations, modernization and secularization appears to be eroding Christian beliefs, with profound consequences (Kelley & De Graff, 2008). However, even this day a significant proportion of the people belonging to divergent faiths regard religious belief as an essential element of their everyday life. Philips et al (2008) refute to develop blind faith in any faith including Christianity. They submit to state that the Christians have dropped the idea o research and investigation into the commandments clearly mentioned in the Scripture. The Christians maintain the worldview that Christ had arrived in the world in order to fill the world with the light of truthfulness, justice and chastity. However, the representatives and followers of the evil turned against him, and inflicted every kind of atrocities upon him.. At last, the cruel king crucified Jesus Christ after wreaking agonized mental and physical tortures upon the great personality. Since the Holy Christ sacrificed his life for the salvation of the progeny of Adam and Eve, his love serves as the first and foremost thing in order to obtain eternal bliss (Smith, 1999). My personal experiences endorse the very reality that violation of the teachings manifestly described in the Scripture always brings problems and disasters of massive scale in its wake. Taking the example of the challenge of unwed motherhood in the advanced societies at massive scale is undoubtedly an outcome of the deviance from the true Christian teachings, which would not allow any kind of immorality and fornication to be practiced against the fellow humans. Since the uncontrolled activities of the adolescents and teenagers drag them towards the path of sexual intercourse without marriage, such type of fornication and adultery paves the way towards multiplying the number and proportion of the unwed mothers in the USA, Europe and Australia. Similarly, I also witness that terrorism and massacre of the innocent and hapless humans at the hands of the cruel and ruthless terrorist groups has been in vogue in the world. The history of the wars, battles and bloodshed reveal the bitter reality that conflicts between the individuals, nations, cultures and civilizations have always brought death, disaster, destruction and turmoil in their aftermath. Not only this that the clashes between the nations cost heavy losses in men and material, but also give birth to several horrible socioeconomic, political and cultural consequences. Taking the example of two Great Wars, it becomes evident that they have left indelible impact of their obnoxious shadows on humanity in the form of cultural conflicts for the future years to come. The wide scale terrorism is also the outcome of the conflict between civilizations, which have given a go to the terrorist acts in almost all parts of the globe making the societies as an insecure place to reside. Similarly, the nefarious designs articulated by the powerful governments in order to subjugate the weak nations of the world by dint of their economic and strategic strength have destroyed the peace of the world. It is therefore, I heartily long for the second arrival of the Savior, Who could save the warring humanity from the awkward clutches of injustices and bloodshed. If we share the word of the Gospel, it will become evident that worship of One God, love for the Christ, obedience of the parents, kindness towards the fellow beings, escape from debauchery and strict observing of chastity, honesty and integrity are essential to make the world a peaceful and prosperous area (Smith, 1999). References Blank, Rebecca & Kovak, Brian (2008) The growing problem of disconnected single mothers Retrieved in http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc252e.pdf Flannelly, Kevin J., Ellison, Christopher G., Galek, Kathleen & Koenig, Harold G. (2008) Beliefs about Life-After-Death, Psychiatric Symptomology and Cognitive Theories of Psychopathology Journal of Psychology and Theology Rosemead School of Psychology Biola University Vol. 36, No. 2 pp. 94-103 Gordon T. Smith, Gordon, T. (1999) Courage and Calling IVP Books Macionis, John J. & Plummer, Kenneth (2008) Sociology: A Global Introduction. Eleventh Edition Prentice-Hall Phillips, W. Gary., Brown, William E. & Stonestreet, John (2008) Making sense of your Worldview Sheffield Publishing Company; 2nd edition Vidal, C. (2008) Wat is een wereldbeeld? (What is a worldview?), in Van Belle, H. & Van der Veken, J., Editors, Nieuwheid denken. De wetenschappen en het creatieve aspect van de werkelijkheid, in press. Acco, Leuven. Retrieved in http://cogprints.org/6094/2/Vidal_2008-what-is-a-worldview.pdf Read More