Thursday, October 6, 2011
Entry 2 - Paradigm Shift
The most influential example of a paradigm shift in my life (and the first example that comes to mind whenever anyone mentions such shifts in viewpoint) is when my worldview changed entirely, as a result of my renunciation of the Christian faith. My views consisted of everything in the Bible touted by my preacher or family. Primarily I believed that there was one god in existence, and he was the god of the Bible whose son was Jesus. These views were slowly undermined by many small crises, the most notable of which included reading the Bible cover to cover and developing an interest in the life sciences. Though my emotional attachment to the Christian worldview kept me subscribed to those beliefs for a long period of time, eventually I gave it up, due to the overwhelming amount of evidence contrary to those beliefs. Eventually my confidence in the Christian view dropped enough that I adopted an Atheistic worldview. With this current view, I do not believe in any god(s), especially not the god of the Bible. As might be expected, my initial response to this change was one of fear, for a wide variety of reasons. However, the fear eventually dissipated, and I was left a fundamentally changed individual.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for sharing this experience. As people develop their own religious views (one way or another), there are frequently paradigm shifts like the one that you described, although I'd guess that everyone really goes through a unique process with this. While we don't spend much time in TOK on religion, it's a valid part of the course. It's great that you're reflecting on why you believe what you do, and what kind of impact that it's had on you.
ReplyDelete