How “Hidden Beliefs” Secretly Shape Discussion And Debate In A Polarized World

Why Charlie Kirk’s Worldview Methods Worked

Many people feel intimidated by the word “philosophy.” It can sound complex, filled with unfamiliar terms, and usually seems reserved for academics or intellectuals.

This can lead to a belief that it can be dismissed. However, the truth is, philosophy is not exclusive. It’s a tool that we all use to defend our beliefs and hopefully aid us in thinking more clearly about the world we live in. You don’t have to be an ivory-tower scholar… you just need to be willing to slow down, think deeply, and not shy away from life’s big questions.

What Philosophy Actually Does

Philosophy plays a crucial role in shaping our worldview. It has two main functions. First, it encourages us to scrutinize our beliefs and understand why we hold them. Really, it’s about challenging our most basic assumptions and testing their validity.

Second, it helps us connect the dots between different aspects of life, creating a comprehensive worldview that makes everything fit together. So philosophy is not just abstract; it’s a powerful tool that enables us to think clearly and understand how things are interconnected in our day-to-day lives.

Everyone Is Already Doing It

Again, philosophical thinking isn’t reserved for a select few egg heads. Nope, it’s a part of being human. And, whether you realize it or not, every day, you’re already engaging in philosophy.

Anytime you ponder why something is important, how things are connected, or what’s right and wrong, you’re being philosophical. You don’t need fancy words to do it. It’s simply a natural part of the human experience. We all do this, though usually without thinking about it.

How Our Thinking Grows

As kids, we start by asking questions about everything because we want to understand the world around us. As we get older, our curiosity expands beyond just controlling our surroundings. We start connecting different subjects… like how biology links to psychology, or how history shapes society.

Eventually, as we continue to learn, our goal is to organize our knowledge in a more systematic way, searching for the key underlying patterns that govern things. And at some point, we begin asking the most profound questions: What’s real? Why are we here? What’s the point of it all?

The Big Questions Philosophy Asks

Philosophy deals with questions science alone can’t answer. It asks things like: Are we truly free, or just part of a system that controls us?  Gee whiz, now that’s a pretty big deal, right?

Can science explain everything, or are there limits to what science can explain? What really does make something right or wrong, and why should we care? These questions touch the deepest parts of life—what reality is, how we know things, and how we ought to live. Charlie Kirk asked folks these questions.

Building a Worldview

As I said, everyone has a worldview, even if they’ve never thought about it. A worldview is the basic framework through which you interpret everything in life. The truth is, your beliefs form a network, not just random, free-floating “thought bits.”

Some are deep and foundational, while others are more superficial and peripheral. At the core though, are your most basic presuppositions… things you assume to be true even though they can’t be proven by science, like trusting your senses or believing the world is orderly. These assumptions guide how you think, what you say, and how you act.

Why These Core Beliefs Matter

Because presuppositions can’t be proven by experiments, they’re always held by faith… not necessarily blind faith, but a commitment that goes deeper than evidence. In that sense, they’re “religious” because they shape how you see the world, what you care about, and what you’d even be willing to die for.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has these “religious beliefs” whether or not they consider themselves religious. I guess another way of saying this is that we all believe some things are ultimate and other things are proximate.

Why People Resist Changing Their Worldview

Now, changing these tightly held core beliefs is a tough go. It can feel like tearing down and rebuilding your whole house, your entire mental framework. Quite a task indeed. Most people naturally resist it because it’s terribly unsettling. It’s much easier to stay with what’s familiar than to risk the chaos of ditching traditions and starting over.

The Three Big Branches of Philosophy

Philosophy tends to group its big questions into three areas. Here they are:

Metaphysics asks what reality is: What are humans? Does God exist? What’s the nature of the universe? Epistemology asks how we know anything: Is our knowledge reliable? Can science explain everything? And ethics asks how we should live: What’s right and wrong, and why should we care? (All this should help you fact-check the so-called fact-checkers.)

The Christian Way of Answering These Questions

Christian theology tackles the same philosophical questions. It teaches that God created the world, humans fell into sin, God still rules over history, and one day He will bring everything to completion.

It says we know ultimate truth through God’s revelation and by faith. It also gives moral standards about how we should live. So, Christian thinking isn’t separate from philosophy… it’s a complete worldview that brings together and answers life’s biggest questions.

How Worldview Shapes What We See

Please don’t think this is insignificant, especially in a highly polarized world. Your worldview affects how you interpret everything. And yep, it explains a lot when you examine the conflict of ideas all around us.

Two people can look at the same evidence and come to totally different conclusions because of the assumptions they start with. For example, someone who rules out miracles might reject evidence for Christ’s resurrection, while someone open to the supernatural might see that same evidence as highly convincing.

The Need for Consistency… This Was Charlie’s Formula

But here’s the thing: I said everyone has a worldview, but I also want to add that not every worldview is consistent. Charlie Kirk would press college kids to be consistent in their thinking. Sometimes our beliefs clash without us realizing it. Part of growing in wisdom is spotting these tensions and contradictions in our own worldview and then working to reshape our beliefs so they fit together in a more coherent way.

Philosophy Is Everyone’s Job

At the end of the day, philosophy isn’t optional. Every person builds and defends a network of beliefs, whether they are conscious of it or not. The challenge is to do it well… to think clearly, honestly, and consistently.

So then, a solid worldview, shaped by philosophical worldview thinking, helps us make sense of life, understand what we can and can’t know for sure, and figure out how we ought to live in a world filled with complex issues like technology, politics, and ethics.

Philosophy isn’t just an academic exercise… it’s part of being a thoughtful human being. The goal then is to actually slow down and think about how we think. Try it. Yeah, your head will hurt for a while. But the payoffs are big!

Source: https://www.offthegridnews.com/religion/how-hidden-beliefs-secretly-shape-discussion-and-debate-in-a-polarized-world/