Worldview Criteria

Harold A. Netland

How should I compare qualities of worldviews? This is one author's synopsis of the criteria for a worldview test.

D1: p is a defining belief of R if and only if being an active participant in good standing within the religious community of R entails acceptance of p.

D2: A religion R is true if and only if all of its defining beliefs are true; if any of its defining beliefs are false, then R is false.

P1: If a defining belief p of a religion R is self-contradictory then p is false.

P2: If two or more defining beliefs of R are mutually contradictory at least one of them must be false.

P3: If a defining belief p of R is self-defeating it cannot reasonably be accepted as true.

P4: If the defining beliefs of R are not coherent in the sense of providing

a unified perspective on the world, then R cannot plausibly be regarded as true. P5: Any religious worldview which is unable to account for fundamental phenomena associated with a religious orientation or which cannot provide adequate answers to central questions in religion should not be accepted as true.

P6: If a defining belief p of R contradicts well-established conclusions in other domains, and if R cannot justify doing so, then p should be rejected as probably false.

P7: If a defining belief p of R depends upon a belief in another domain (e.g.,history) which there is good reason to reject as false, then there is good reason to reject p as probably false.

P8: If one or more defining beliefs of R are incompatible with widely accepted and well-established moral values and principles; or if R includes among its essential practices or rites activities which are incompatible with basic moral values and practices, then there is good reason for rejecting R as false.

P9: If the defining beliefs of R entail the denial of the objectivity of basic moral values and principles; or if they entail the denial of the objective distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, then there is good reason for rejecting R as false.

P10: If R is unable to provide adequate answers to basic questions about the phenomena of moral awareness this provides good reason for rejecting R as false.

To read more about this, please see Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism and the Questions of Truth by Harold A. Netland (pages 192-193).

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