Saturday, August 18, 2012

Worldviews, Part 5

Continuing with this series on worldview presuppositions and what impact they have on my choices for religious practices, I'm now at the point where some religions can be screened to see what lines up with my presuppositions.  I've established to my own satisfaction that there is more to this world than simply matter & energy, that there is a Supreme Being who exercised preference and creativity in inaugurating and maintaining the world we inhabit and its natural processes.  This Supreme Being is relational, precise yet tolerant of variation, has an affinity for beauty, a penchant for order and complexity, and embues nature with a robust vitality. 

It appears that this Supreme Being is benevolent, although I can't at this stage be totally sure of that.  Potentially, IT (sorry, I don't know about gender at this stage, or if it's even appropriate as a category) could be approachable by humans.  IT also could be actively involved with nature and the created order, but I'm not yet sure at this point in the process.  I'm even assuming by my language that this Supreme Being is singular, working solo, rather than with a team of other Supreme (more or less) Beings.  If there is more than one Supreme Being, though, the consistency I observe in the created order tells me that they are pretty much on the same page with how things are supposed to be.  Still, I need more information to be definitive.

So one of the things I might ask is: do we (humans) have any evidence in our historical record of interactions with a Supreme Being? (let's just use God from here on; less typing.)  What accounts do we have of this?  Do any of the existing religions line up with my presuppositions here, and if so, what record might they have of God interacting with the created order?

Well, I first have to lop off the atheist and materialist and humanist belief worldviews (they wouldn't call themselves religions even if I might).  I also have to abandon the religions that view God as an impersonal force, unapproachable, not possessing what we know as personality or personhood (in the sense of having preferences, making choices and forming relationships).  Naturally, someone else coming with different presuppositions would perhaps be drawn toward those religions, but... my particular set tells me "no - these don't work with how I see the world".

What, then does that leave me to explore?  A taxonomy diagram like this one that I developed last week is sort of helpful in that regard:

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