100 story challenge

Why We All Lose in the Culture War

What if we tried to understand the other side instead of demonizing it?

Some people say we are in a culture war. The actual conflict is in the worldview people have. We all have a worldview, and people have always had worldviews. The problem our culture has is that we have forgotten how to be tolerant, or understanding of other people’s points of view, or worldviews.

Everyone has a starting point. Even the basics of logic require a starting point to be logical. There can be no logic or reasoning without a starting point — or a worldview.

Worldview involves things like whether you believe in God, the nature of man, the nature of the universe, and even how reality itself is perceived. It involves what you see as the ultimate authority. Is the ultimate authority science or is it God? Even your interpretation of that depends on your worldview.

There is nothing wrong with thinking you are right, or even thinking someone else is wrong. It is wrong though to dismiss someone as an idiot or call them names just because they don't agree with you. It might help if you tried understanding their frame of reality.

Atheist or theistic worldview

Atheists will say there is no “evidence” for God, and they are basing that on the worldview that only the material world exists. Theists say there is plenty of evidence because their worldview allows for there to be something more than the material world.

There are people that try to combine the two, and maybe even that is a third worldview.

There are people who claim to have looked at physical evidence and say that convinced them God is real. There are other people who claim to have been Christians but stopped being when they looked and were no longer convinced by what they thought was evidence.

Those drastic changes in worldview are rare though.

We are all living in the same world, seeing the same things, and experiencing the same things. We still see it differently.

I think it is an error to try to convince someone to believe in God by using physical evidence. That is my worldview. There is some physical evidence of God There is plenty of circumstantial evidence that should make a reasonable person wonder. There is the experience of billions of people as a witness. If your worldview has already dismissed the idea, you will have a hard time seeing the evidence that is there.

It is also a bit intellectually dishonest for atheists to say there is no evidence for God. They only believe in the physical world, so only the physical world exists. God is spiritual, so to them there can be no evidence. Intellectual dishonesty comes when they insist that is the only reality there is and make fun of those that disagree with them.

Theists are not totally off the hook though. Saying “the Bible says” to someone who does not believe in God, is not going to win many arguments.

It would be better if both would make an effort to at least understand other people have different worldviews. Worldviews are not in themselves right or wrong, they are just a reference point. Someone who thinks science is the ultimate authority could still believe in God. Someone aware of God could not want to be limited in what they do and rejected God, and use the “no evidence” thing as an excuse.

In Politics

Your worldview also affects your politics. If you believe the individual should be the focal point instead of the whole, you might believe in a small government and be conservative. If you think the whole is more important than the individual you might see government as a useful tool, and be a liberal.

There is a lot of demonizing propaganda these days, and very little effort toward understanding and working together.

I have heard people say they understand the other side, but they dont understand the worldview of the other side. When you look at the other side through the lens of a different worldview, you will not see it accurately.

Conservatives are not really fascist, racist people against individual rights. Liberals are not really socialists trying to destroy your culture. I would say both ideologies have their share of weaknesses.

My worldview is that ideology itself is just an interpretation of reality, and neither one has any real value. To me, ideology is completely not necessary and I think we would be better off with neither one.

The difference is that worldview is a frame of reference, while ideology is just a colored lens to make the world fit that frame of reference.

Ideology is just propaganda to support a worldview.

Conclusion

There are different worldviews out there. We are all living in the same world, seeing the same things, and experiencing the same things, but we see it differently.

Instead of trashing each other’s worldviews, it might be better to at least understand their point of view. You are probably not going to change someone’s worldview, but what could we do if we practiced tolerance instead?