What is a Worldview and Why Does it Matter?

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I’m going to assume that you’ve never come across the word “worldview” before, so if you have then please just be patient with me. I want to try to define the term clearly if for no other reason than this is something that we all have, but do not often consider or even recognize that we have. The popular illustration is that you do not ask the fish, “How’s the water?” because their answer may very well be “What’s water?”1 Do fish even consider the fact that they are swimming or is it just life to them. The point is that it’s easy to forget that what surrounds you is only normal because it’s what you know. Your worldview is the water you swim in, the air you breathe.

The word itself is not difficult to grasp. A worldview is a person’s overall view of (you guessed it) the world. Obviously, I don’t mean a physical view. This is a mental, emotional, and philosophical view of the world. And that world is not simply this blue-green rock on which we’re floating through space, but all of reality both physical and metaphysical. James Anderson says, “A worldview is an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us. Your worldview represents your most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe you inhabit. It reflects how you would answer all the “big questions” of human existence, the fundamental questions we ask about life, the universe, and everything.“2

You instinctively know these questions. James Sire boiled it down to seven basic questions in his book The Universe Next Door.

  • What is really real?
  • What is the nature of the world around us?
  • What is a human being?
  • What happens to a person at death?
  • Why is it possible to know anything at all?
  • How do we know what is right and wrong?
  • What is the meaning of human history?3

You may have never asked yourself those questions, but I would be willing to bet that you have some gut-level answers deep down. These answers may come from all different kinds of places, but they are the lenses that you use to explore the world. Francis Schaeffer would call these your presuppositions. He defines presuppositions as “the basic way an individual looks at life… People’s presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Their presuppositions also provide the basis for their values and therefore the basis for their decisions.“4

So, if I don’t even know that it is there most of the time, then why does it matter what it is? Well, studying worldviews is like going to the eye doctor. Your worldview affects the way you see things, and the goal of going to the eye doctor is to correctly perceive reality. Only a very bad eye doctor would lead you to see the world in a way that is distorted or blind. As Christians, we believe that the teachings of the Bible provide the best lens for us to view the world.

Perhaps one afternoon you get lost on YouTube and you see a story of someone who connects people to their dead relatives, then you see an ad for a politician who is promising to improve the school system and financially support the middle class, and finally, you see a report about a new lifeform being discovered on Mars. Your worldview, including your preconceived notions about God, the origin and nature of the universe, human history and politics, life after death, and more will strongly influence how you react to these videos.

Worldviews (whether you realize it or not) largely determine people’s opinions on matters of ethics and politics. These presuppositions shape what you think about public education, economic policy, foreign aid, abortion, euthanasia, the use of military force, environmentalism, same-sex relationships, animal rights, genetic enhancement, and almost any other major issue of the day.

If I’m the fish, I really want to know what my water looks like, because it plays a huge part in defining and shaping our lives. This set of presuppositions outlines what we believe, how we interpret and behave in response to our experiences, and how we relate to others. This is a good place to mention that sometimes the idea of worldviews gets used to divide us and prevent meaningful discussions about the big questions of life. Since many of our presuppositions are tied to deeply held, almost instinctual beliefs, we are quick to get defensive about them. We’d often rather use this knowledge to fit people into neat manageable categories in order to avoid getting our hands dirty.

I hope that as we continue on this study of worldviews, you will use the things you learn to engage in real debate. I will be readily admitting my presuppositions throughout and I think we would all be better off if we knew those things before we began talking to people. But often they don’t even know that they have a worldview, and maybe now you can help them to understand what it is and why it is so significant.