Worldviews - BUI 401

• Syllabus

• Basic questions

  • What is your worldview?

  • How do people acquire their worldviews?

  • How can one judge worldviews?

  • Is there a correct worldview?

  • Are all worldviews equally valid?

    • If yes, . . .
      . . . how do you choose a worldview?

      . . . what if aspects of a worldview are factually wrong?

      . . . is external reality controlled by subjective assertions/beliefs?

      . . . how should one behave if all worldviews are equally valid?

      If no, . . .

      . . . how do you judge worldviews and choose?

      . . . how would one who believes this behave?

  • What are worldviews for?   How do people use them?

  • Can one not have a worldview?

  • What if aspects of one's worldview are inconsistent w/other aspects?

  • What if lots of people vehemently disagree with your worldview?

Current examples of worldview clashes:

• Osama bin Laden's Open Letter to America - (txt)
  • According to this bin Laden letter, why did he attack the US?
  • What does bin Laden ask the US to do to prevent further attacks?
  • What Americans were blamed by Jerry Falwell for the 9/11 attacks?
    • Did Falwell correctly anticipate any of bin Laden's grievances against the US?

• Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al. ask Clinton in 1998 to invade Iraq
  • How does Iraq threaten the US, according to the above letter from PNAC?
  • What are "our vital interests in the Gulf," according to the letter?
  • What does the letter say about the importance of bringing democracy to Iraq?
  • The head of Britain's MI6 reports (in July 2002) to Tony Blair that, in the Bush admin, "... intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy ... to remove Saddam through military action ..." - (txt)

• Natural Selection vs Creationism & "Intelligent Design"
  • How science works
    • Does science require any faith?
    • What are the essential features of a scientific theory?
  • Is Intelligent Design a scientific theory?
  • Does Intelligent Design make any testable predictions?   (is it falsifiable?)

• Why is there controversy over enhanced global warming?
  • What is the evidence for & against global warming?
  • Do the proponents or skeptics of global warming have a conflict of interest?
  • Can you think of any industries whose funding of research into solutions to global warming would offer indirect evidence that global warming is a real problem?
  • Why is global warming now seen by the Pentagon as a national security issue?

• North Korean guest workers in Russia are surprised to discover that
  Kim Il Sun is not exalted elsewhere.

  • Why were the North Korean guest workers so surprised?
  • How can one avoid the kind of shock they experienced?