The Universe Next Door

I just completed a read of the book, The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire. It's a "catalog" of different worldviews, from the perspective of the theistic (and evangelical Christian) worldview.

I was surprised, a bit, by how fascinating and helpful and new the information in this book was to me. It's very well-written, and fairly indepth in an overview sort of way.

What surprised me most was how many thoughts, questions and "worldview" issues I had. I had thought I was struggling with questions so unique and personal. But many times what I thought I was original and exceptional in my doubts and internal struggles was mostly, perhaps entirely, influenced by a conflicting worldview and system of thought. This was very good to realize because and examine. Over and over I found, with some embarrassment and much relief, that all that seemed so convincing and brave and compelling in the shadows--so much of existentialism or eastern philosophies or even post-modernism--became much less attractive under scrutiny.

When I started to examine these stances and their conclusions--realizing they weren't in any way unique or special to me-- then I could see their inherent problems, inconsistencies, and realize again and again that I choose faith in Christ, and faith in a transcendent, personal God as the way most consistent and fulfilling and truth affirming.

I also could see more clearly what was influencing the viewpoints of my friends and colleagues. This is helpful, so that once again I can be aware of how that attracts me and also, so that, by God's grace, I can be of some service to them in perhaps scrutinizing their own worldviews, if that is of interest to them.

The writer was very artistically aware--he quoted poetry throughout. This appealed to me, of course. One thing he said about the nihilistic worldview really stood out:

"The twist is this: (he's speaking about how many artists with a nilistic viewpoint have tried to express nihilism in their art). To the extent that these art works display the human implication of a nihilistic view, they are not nihilistic; to the extent they themselves are meaningless, they are not art works.

Art is nothing if not formal, that is, endowed with structure by the artist. But structure itself implies meaning. So to the extent that an art work has structure, it has meaning and thus is not nihilistic."