Exploring Foundations: Worldview and its Relationship to Health and Wellness

At Amplified Whole Health, we talk a lot about building a house of health:  and that is why we address Foundations.  Without a solid foundation, no house will stand.  Your understanding of your worldview, or your faith (if you are faith based), actually will determine the quality and construction of your WHole House (of Health and Wellness). Why is this? Very simply, what we believe about the world determines how we behave. The more in alignment our behavior is with our worldview/beliefs, the more peace with have within ourselves. We are acting in integrity: our beliefs match our behaviors. When our beliefs and behaviors are in conflict, or when we don’t truly understand what we believe, we are more likely to be tossed about by the winds and whims of the world and less likely to feel that we have control and contentment with our actions. For example, as a Christian, if I believe that my body is God’s temple and then I abuse it with overindulgence and sedentary behaviors, I may feel unease about the fact that my actions are not upholding my beliefs. Or I may find that maybe what I thought I believed is not what I ACTUALLY believe.

Dr. .James Sire, author of The Universe Next Door, proposed 7 questions that every person should be able to answer about their worldview. Freddy Davis did a good job summarizing these questions in his blogpost, The Seven Questions That Define A Worldview, and I will quote some of their questions below. I encourage you to take some time in self-evaluation and think through your answers to these questions. Feeling comfortable with your answers will help you along the path to building a stronger WHole House.

• What is the nature of ultimate reality?

  • Is there a God or not? If there is, what is that he like? If there is no God, what is the origin of material reality?

  • Are there multiple gods? If so, what are they like?

  • Is there a personal element to ultimate reality? If not, what is the nature of impersonal reality?

• What is the nature of material reality (the physical world)?

  • It is created or uncreated?

  • It is orderly or chaotic?

  • It is subjective or objective?

  • It is personal or impersonal?

  • It is eternal or temporal?

• What is a human being?

  • A highly evolved biological machine.

  • A god or potential god.

  • A form of energy which shifts forms through successive existences.

  • A person made in the image of God.

• What happens to a person at death?

  • People cease to exist.

  • Individuals are transformed to a higher state.

  • People reincarnate into another life on earth.

  • People depart to a shadowy existence on “the other side.”

  • Individuals enter into the spiritual realm (heaven, hell, or other place) based on how life was lived on earth.

  • People enter directly into heaven.

• Why is it possible to know anything at all?

  • Consciousness and rationality developed through a long process of evolution.

  • There is no “reason” that human beings are able to have knowledge. That is just the nature of our existence.

  • Knowledge is an illusion.

  • Humans are made in the image of God who, himself, has knowledge.

• How do we know what is right or wrong? (I have also seen this phrased as “is there such a thing as absolute truth”)

  • Right and wrong are strictly products of human choice.

  • Right and wrong are determined by what feels good.

  • A sense of right and wrong was an evolutionary development as a survival mechanism for the species.

  • Right and wrong are learned by experience as we learn what pleases the gods.

  • We are made in the image of God whose character is good and who has revealed what is right.

• What is the meaning of human history?

  • There is no innate meaning to human history. Meaning is what humans make it to be.

  • Time is an illusion.

  • Meaning involves realizing the purpose of the gods.

  • Meaning results from discovering and fulfilling the purpose of God.