World Views

World views (also worldviews) are the way that a person can see the world, and their beliefs in what is true, or what is most important in life. There are many, many worldviews, and while I do list many here I by no means list all of them, and I’m not sure I can list all of them, but these are some of the more major world views that people have. Some of these definitions are crude and don’t fully capture what the belief means, but some beliefs are hard to put into words.

Theism is the belief that there is a god or gods that made the world and that the gods continue to interact with the world.

The opposite of theism is atheism, which is the belief that there is no god or gods, and the world came into existence through other methods, primarily evolution, though that is not always the case.

Rationalism is often paired with atheism because it is the belief that one should think logically and use reason before taking any action, as opposed to the belief that you should take action based on emotion alone.

Transcendentalism is the belief that a sense of (I couldn’t find a better word for it) divinity transcends all people and things, and that people should begin living simpler lives without material things distracting them from the essence of life.

Pragmatism is the belief that all things are more important and worth more when they are more useful to a person using them, and puts little to no stock in things of sentimental or theoretical value.

Nihilism is a bit of a black sheep among philosophies and worldviews because it says that there is no point to life and that nothing holds any importance. it’s surprising that nihilism doesn’t have a high suicide rate, but this is primarily because to them dying is just as pointless as living, so why bother buying a rope?

Existentialism is the belief that existence is more important than essence, or spiritual being, and that you should act before pondering the meaning of life, for only through your actions can you find the meaning of your life.

Post-Modernism is the belief that you should always be skeptical of anything and everything. you should try and figure out the very basic definitions of anything before you do anything.

Deism is the belief in a God who does not intervene or interact at all with the world (this world) that he created. The classic example is that of a clock maker who does not touch a running clock after making it.

Somewhat similar to pragmatism is materialism, but while pragmatism believes that physical and useful things are best, materialism believes that a spiritual or transcendent realm doesn’t exist at all.

New age pantheism believes that material or physical differences mean nothing, and that deep down in our spiritual being we are all one and the same, including all things in the world, not just people.

Humanism is the belief that the most important thing in the world is man, and that he is the most rational creature and therefore is the best being in the world. Humanism is, obviously, an atheistic belief.

Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the best/most important thing, and that all people should strive to have as much happiness and as little pain as possible, and while that may sound extremely childish to some, many hedonists will endure pain for more pleasure later, a somewhat more rational form of hedonism.

Finally, socialism and communism are the ideas that all resources (money, food, etc.) should be evenly spread among people, no matter what they did, or even if they did anything to deserve it. Communism is just the more extreme form.

Again, this is an extremely cursory guide, and many of the definitions didn’t capture the full essence of the belief systems.