Worldviews
Everyone has a worldview. We may not be conscious of it, but we all have certain presuppositions and biases that affect the way we view all of life and reality. One person has defined a Worldview like this: “A worldview is like a set of lenses which taint our vision or alter the way we perceive the world around us.”

Our worldview is formed by:
1)      Education,
2)      Family value system
3)      Dominant/subdominant cultural norms we adopt
4)      Through osmosis accidentally learned from surrounding cultural influences:
For many people their worldview is simply something they have absorbed by osmosis from their surrounding cultural influences. They have never thought strategically about what they believe and wouldn't be able to give a rational defense of their beliefs to others.
5)      Literature read
6)      Media absorbed
7)      Etc.

Worldview Content
Leo Apostel Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Brussels:
A worldview can be defined as a coherent set of bodies of knowledge concerning all aspects of our world. It is to allow us to construct a global image of the world and understand as many elements of our experience as possible. A worldview is a map that we use to orient and explain, from which we evaluate and act, and put forward prognoses and visions of the future. Hence: (i) orient; (ii) explain; (iii) evaluate; (iv) act and; (v) predict are the basic aspects of a worldview. In a more structured way Apostel put forward these basic aspects as follows:

1. A model of the world (What is the nature of the world? How is it structured?)
2. An explanation model (Why is the world the way it is and not different? Why are we the way we are and not different?)
3. An evaluation model (Why do we feel in our world the way we feel?)
4. An action model (How can we and do we have to act and create in this world? How can we influence and transform?)
5. A rational futurology (What kind of future is ahead of us? And what are the criteria that allow us to choose for the future?)
6. A model of model construction (How do we have to construct a model of the world such that we can answer the above questions?)
7. Fragments of worldviews as starting points (What are the partial answers that can be given to the above questions?)

Five Worldviews
It sometimes seems as if there are more philosophical and religious views than any normal person could ever learn about. Indeed, there are more than six thousand distinct religions in the world today. However, some people are surprised to find that the world’s religions and philosophies tend to break down into a few major categories. These five worldviews include all the dominant outlooks in the world today. The following information is adapted from a book by Dennis McCallum.

  Each Worldview is named and explained by a brief explanation of its what each believes regarding REALITY, PEOPLE, TRUTH AND VALUES. 

NATURALISM (Atheism,Agnosticism, Existentialism)
REALITY:    The material universe is all that exists. Reality is "one-dimensional." There is no such thing as a soul or a spirit. Everything can be explained on the basis of natural law.
PEOPLE:    People are the chance product of a biological process of evolution. People are entirely material. The human species will one day pass out of existence.
TRUTH:   Truth is usually understood as scientific proof. Only that which can be observed with the five senses is accepted as real or true.
VALUES:   No objective values or morals exist. Morals are individual preferences or socially useful behaviors. Even social morals are subject to evolution and change.

PANTHEISM (Hinduism; Taoism, Buddhism, much New Age Consciousness
REALITY:   Only the spiritual dimension exists. All else is illusion, maya. Spiritual reality, Brahman, is eternal, impersonal, unknowable. It is possible to say that everything is part of God, or that God is in everything and everyone.
PEOPLE:   People are one with ultimate reality. Thus humanity is spiritual, eternal, and impersonal. People’s belief that they are individuals is illusion.
TRUTH:   Truth is an experience of unity with "the oneness" of the universe. Truth is beyond all rational description. Rational thought as it is understood in the West cannot show us reality.
VALUES:   Because ultimate reality is impersonal, many pantheistic thinkers believe that there is no real distinction between good and evil. Instead, "unenlightened" behavior is that which fails to understand essential unity.

THEISM (Christianity, Islam, Judaism)
REALITY:   An infinite, personal God exists. He created a finite, material world. Reality is both material and spiritual. The universe as we know it had a beginning and will have an end.
PEOPLE:   Humankind is the unique creation of God. People were created "in the image of God," which means that we are personal, eternal, spiritual, and biological.
TRUTH:   Truth about God is known through revelation. Truth about the material world is gained via revelation and the five senses in conjunction with rational thought.
VALUES:   Moral values are the objective expression of an absolute moral being.

SPIRITISM AND POLYTHEISM(Thousands of Religions)
REALITY:   The world is populated by spirit beings who govern what goes on. Gods/demons are the real reason behind "natural" events. Material things are real, but they have spirits associated with them and, therefore, can be interpreted spiritually.
PEOPLE:   People are a creation of the gods like the rest of the creatures on earth. Often, tribes or races have a special relationship with some gods who protect them and can punish them.
TRUTH:   Truth about the natural world is discovered through the shaman figure who has visions telling him what the gods and demons are doing and how they feel.
VALUES:   Moral values take the form of taboos, which are things that irritate or anger various spirits. These taboos are different from the idea of "good and evil" because it is just as important to avoid irritating evil spirits as it is good ones.

POSTMODERNISM
REALITY:   Reality must be interpreted through our language and cultural "paradigm." Therefore, reality is "socially constructed."
PEOPLE:   Humans are nodes in a cultural reality – they are a product of their social setting. The idea that people are autonomous and free is a myth.
TRUTH:   Truths are mental constructs meaningful to individuals within a particular cultural paradigm. They do not apply to other paradigms. Truth is relative to one’s culture.
VALUES:   Values are part of our social paradigms as well. Tolerance, freedom of expression, inclusion, and refusal to claim to have the answers are the only universal values.

Christian Worldview
A Christian consistent and cohesive Biblical worldview includes the following beliefs:
1)      God exists (Heb. 11:6) and that created everything.
2)      God is the standard by which we measure everything else.
3)      The Bible is God's divinely inspired Word(2 Tim. 3:16).  
4)      The fullness of God came to earth and lived in the human body of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:19).
5)      People chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden and because of that act of rebellion, sin and death entered the world (Rom. 5:12-14). 
6)      Truth is absolute, not relativistic, and can only be understood by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the one who said "I am the way, the Truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

While Christianity is believed by faith, it is most definitely a reasonable and rational faith. It answers the questions of the mind and the heart. We all live by faith. Some people have faith in themselves. Some have faith in the government or in a hope for world peace. Some have faith in their money, their education or their employment. All of those things are temporal and can change. They can all let us down. Our health can fail, we can lose our job, we can end a meaningful relationship with someone we care about. Life changes, but God can be depended on through it all. He will never leave nor forsake those who belong to Him. (Heb. 13:5b)

Our desire for you is Christ will live in your hearts by faith, and that you will come to know and understand with us the height and the depth and the width and the length of the Love of Christ. It surpasses all human knowledge. We pray that you can be filled with the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:18-19)