Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Worldviews

Abstract

AbstractIn this chapter we use philosophical dimensions, criteria, and tests to better appreciate the respective strengths and weaknesses of religious, scientific, and philosophical worldviews. Religious worldviews are illustrated with the conflict between Intelligent Design and Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. We recognize psychological and societal strengths of religions, but also their limitations and failures. The strength of scientific worldviews is illustrated with systems theory, a problem-solving attitude, and universal Darwinism, while their weaknesses stem from their focus on objectivity only and thus their neglect of values and action, which are essential components for psychological and societal functioning. We then present philosophical worldviews as an attempt to build coherent and comprehensive worldviews, in the spirit of synthetic philosophizing. We discuss the pros and cons of promoting uniformity or diversity of worldviews. To understand what it means to answer worldview questions, we compare them to axioms, systems of equations, and problems to solve. It is argued that nonviolent communication can be very useful when worldview conflicts become emotional. Finally we discuss an extreme worldview agenda embracing a maximal scope in space and time, thereby naturally introducing the cosmological perspective of Parts II and III.KeywordsObjective CriterionIntelligent DesignReligious WorldviewSpiritual IntelligenceScientific WorldviewThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.