HHS4C1
Worldviews: An Overview
By James W. Sire
Read Sire’s article on worldviews (pages 9 – 18 and 24 – 28 are the most important) and
answer the questions below in point form. This is due on _________________ and will
be collected and marked out of 10 points. Be ready to discuss your answers and to add
to them as well as part of the 10 points.
1. According to the author, what is a worldview?
A presupposition?
What does the author mean when he says that usually our presuppositions are
pretheoretical?
2. If we don’t get our presuppositions by thinking about them, where do YOU
THINK they come from/we get them from?
3. How is it possible that the Christian worldview answers the seven questions with
a “fair degree of confidence and cohesiveness?”
4. Fill in the chart for this next question.
The author says that there are only three basic worldviews: Theism, Naturalism,
and Pantheism. How does THEISM and NATURALISM answer these two main
worldview questions:
a) What is the “prime reality” in this world (the one thing that is left when
everything that is temporary and finite is stripped away; God, or gods, or
nothing)?
b) What is the nature of “external reality” (the world around us)?
Worldview
What is the “prime reality” (God or
gods or no gods) and its nature?
What is the nature of “external
reality” (the world around us)
Theism
Naturalism
5. Why is it important for one’s worldview to be both consistent and coherent?
DO NUMBER 6 AND 7 ON LINED PAPER.
6. Describe your worldview, using Sire’s “Seven Basic World-View Questions” (page
10) as your guide. Write down each question and then your answer, rough as it
may be, in the space following. For Sire’s # 7, it might be easier to answer these
related questions: Why are we here? What is our purpose?
7. Do you have any other thoughts, comments, questions, or constructive criticisms
about the concept of worldview or Sire’s description of three basic worldviews?
Can you think of people’s ways of viewing the world that would not fit into any
of these three? If so, what might they be?
Purpose of learning about worldviews:
 To realize that everyone has a worldview and whether it is conscious or not,
it greatly affects how one operates in this world.
 To come to a greater understanding/consciousness of our own worldview.
 To come to a greater understanding of other people’s worldviews.