Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Personal Worldview Inventory
The concepts of life, such as spirituality, pluralism, scientism, and postmodernism take different definitions. Spirituality is the aspect of life that covers the spiritual actions and beliefs of a person in relation to the belief in a being of higher power than him; in this case God. On the other hand, the concept of pluralism is the system where people or states coexist or hold more than one principle. Scientism is the belief that there is a universal applicability of science and scientific methods as the most authoritative approach (Cobern, 2005). Postmodernism on the other hand is the effort or principles that explain reality while reacting to the definite believe in science (Cobern, 2005). These three concepts are distinguished in the way people view and explain certain aspects of life.
Among them is prime reality. Prime reality is the infinite God revealed in the religious scriptures. It is the existence of God, the material universe or the gods. It is the reality of the matter that exists in the eternity and all that is there in eternity. On the other hand, nature of external reality is the way we view the world around us as it was created. For instance, it is the way we view the world as either chaotic or orderly, or either created or autonomous, or even as a spirit or matter. This concept gives the basis of distinguishing our worldview as either objective or subjective (Gregersen et al, 1999).
At the same time, a human being is a complex being that is made in the image of God. At the same time, a human being can be defined as the being that lives to rule the rest of the world creatures or the world created by God. Depending on the way a person defines a human being, the view on what happens to a person at death also varies (Gregersen et al, 1999). In my opinion, when a person dies, the body ends its existence in the world, and the being that had controlled the existence of the body goes to its creator; God. This is in contrast with others who believe that the death of a person marks the end of the human being in totality.
It is possible to know anything at all because we are made in the image of God; a God who is all-knowing. The fact that we are created in the image of God, it means that we have the ability to know all that is possible to know (Gregersen et al, 1999). However, critics of spirituality may argue that we are only able to know anything at all through our consciousness and intelligence that is generated due to the long process of survival and evolution process.
We know the right and the wrong by invoking the image of God that is in us. We differentiate between the two because we are created by God, who put the good in us, and the knowledge of what is right and wrong. However, God gave us a choice to choose between the two (Gregersen et al, 1999). Thorough the recognition of the good and the bad, we are able to make this choice.
The meaning of human history is the reflection of what human beings have done in relation to the purpose they were given by God. The human history means the time spent by people in serving God, or serving people and interacting with the world to make it a better place. In my opinion, I think these responses depend on a person’s worldview and the spirituality. The two aspects determine the practices and the belief of a person in relation to the existence of God.
References
Cobern, W.W. (2005). “Worldview, Science and the Understanding of Nature” (2005). Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project . Paper 22. Retrieved From, <http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/science_slcsp/22> August 18, 2015
Gregersen, N., Görman, U., & Wassermann, C. (1999). The Interplay Between Scientific and Theological Worldviews, Part 1. Genève: Labor et Fides Publishers