The next time you are debating or arguing with someone online or face-to-face, keep in mind the complete difference in points of view that you two may have. Before you find yourself getting frustrated and the conversation spirals out of control, remember how entirely different your two outlooks on life are.
Worldview is the entire framework that one will look through to see life. Like a telescope, one will gaze at the sky and use it to view the constellations and make sense of what they see. Between each telescope, there may be different lenses and magnifications which change how things are seen between people, even though they stare at the same sky.
These perspectives and beliefs are what every idea and decision is based on. Worldview is tied very closely to your belief system. Simply, your worldview answers the big questions about life and the origins of the universe, the meaning of life, what our purpose is, what reality is, and so on. Meanwhile, our belief system is how we live in this framework, and more specifically answers questions on how we behave. These differences are so closely related that it can be hard to differentiate them, but generally one can see how two people with completely different ideas about the meaning of life will disagree, not just one idea, but many different things.
A theistic perspective and an atheistic one are different down to the very core, and people on each side see everything from entirely different lenses. Even while it may seem obvious to one or the other what the correct idea is, they will never be able to see eye to eye on certain things, even while they may seem unattached to the big questions in life.
It seems so easy to talk to someone who shares your same outlook on life. Having a conversation with someone who holds the same opinions gives room for civil conversations and discourse, knowing that you both share the same fundamental base. Even with this agreement, there are still ideas that can be discussed and challenged.
That’s not to say that we should only find people who agree with our ideas and never have debates or discourse, but having this idea in mind is crucial to keeping a healthy conversation. Trying to change the entire foundation of someone’s beliefs is a lot bigger than one chat. Rather than getting exhausted trying to argue with the other person to get them to see your side of one issue, the idea of differing perspectives can open the door to many other conversations and allow us to go deeper.
It might be hard to have these deeper dialogues, but approaching issues from a bigger perspective can help others see why we believe the things we do and help us to do the same for them. This is easier said than done, and oftentimes it’s incredibly easy to scoff at one another, but I would encourage you to start seeing ways in which you can start having these more in-depth conversations.
