Diamond WV Themes

Worldview themes associated with the diamond symbol involve how the individual relates to knowledge, including the basis for knowledge, the orientation adopted and tools used for acquiring more knowledge.

Select the worldview theme(s) below that you want to consider:
(Note: If you start with the first one, we will lead you through each of them in turn with prompts to click on!)

4) To what extent will I promote my beliefs? How tolerant am I of conflicting beliefs?

6) Why do I see what I see? What reality generating mechanisms do I primarily rely on?

7) What is the nature of Reality? Specifically, what are things made of? Is there more to Reality than visible (or potentially visible) matter and its interactions (materialism), and if there is, what role should a non-material / spiritual component of Reality (vitalism) have in my worldview?

9) Do I believe that God shares knowledge with human beings? To what extent are the sacred books of various religions representations of such knowledge?

10) How did the universe originate? Does it have a Creator? Does the universe have a purpose?

11) Should I expect the end of the world as we know it any time soon? What will eventually happen to life on Earth?

12) Why am I here? How did I come to be? Is there purpose or meaning behind human existence?

Related Worldview Theme #s: 4, 5A, 5B, 8A, 8B, 9A, 10, 14A, 14B, 25, 27, 44A

13) Do human beings have real choice as to their actions / behavior, or is such behavior predetermined as part of a much larger scheme?

14) Is a reductionistic (breaking big problems into smaller more manageable ones) or wholistic (holistic) approach the best path to acquiring knowledge?

"Where there is doubt there is freedom."	old Latin proverb
"Dare to think for yourself !"	from bumpersticker, author unknown
"The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call laws of Nature."	Thomas Huxley
"God is subtle, but He is not malicious... God does not play dice with the world!"	Albert Einstein
"Reality defies description... Science alone is not enough."	Michael Crichton
"Faith...is a matter of trust. Courageous trust in that ultimate belonging which you experience in your religious moments, in your peak moments. Faith is that inner gesture by which you entrust yourself to that belonging."	David Steindl-Rast
"All science touches on art; all art has its scientific side."	Armand Trousseau
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has."	Martin Luther
"There is an enormous constituency of people who would hold that faith and reason are two routes to knowledge. It's a mistake to affirm that"	Steven Pinker
"Who are we? The answer to this question is not only one of the tasks of science but THE task of science."	Erwin Schrodinger
"When I see the universe as a whole, it gives me a sense of longevity. I do not care about myself as I would otherwise, because of the big picture."	Abraham Loeb

Caution: "As you shop in 'The Reality Marketplace' avoid spending your 'reality cash' too early, before you have seen everything!” from Coming of Age in the Global Village, by Stephen P. Cook, with Donella H. Meadows

#1 Humbly Unsure / Skeptic	#10 Secular Humanism
#2 The True Believer / I Know What's Best For You	#11 Fatalism / Free Will
#5 Scientific Materialism/ Vitalism	#12 The Artistic Worldview
#6 Scientific Method	#13 Dancing With Systems
#7 Mysticism / Magic	#15 The Collective Cognitive Imperative
#8 Monotheism / Belief in a Personal God	#30 Intellectual Freedom
#9 Religious Fundamentalism / Apocalypticism	back to The Reality Marketplace