A worldview is a way of looking at and explaining life and the world. A worldview addresses key questions about life, such as:

• How did we get here?
• Why are we here?
• Where are we going?
• Who's in charge?

Worldviews include religions and other belief systems.


Worldview Categories

Worldviews can be categorized in several ways. The simplest way is to differentiate worldviews into two broad types:
 

The belief that there is no god.	The belief that there is a god or gods.

However, these categories are too simplistic for understanding worldviews. A more effective approach is to use the following 3 categories:

The belief that there is no god.	The belief that there is a personal God who is everywhere, but also exists outside of (or separate from) the world he created.	The belief that there is a god (or gods) that is in everything. God is all and all is god.

In this approach, theism has a more specific view than the broader form presented with only two worldview categories. Here, theism refers to the belief in a single God (monotheism).


Where Worldviews Fit

Most major worldviews fit into one of the three worldview categories of atheism, theism or pantheism. However, some worldviews do not neatly fit into any of these. For example, agnosticism, which is not knowing if God exists, is not fully atheistic. In addition, some worldviews overlap several worldview categories. For example, traditional Buddhism does not include a belief in a single, supreme God, but holds to the existence of the spiritual realm and to spiritual beings.

 

Atheism & Secular Humanism Marxism Postmodernism	Christianity Islam Judaism	Buddhism Hinduism New Age