ICONS: Building Blocks of Worldview

People categorize worldviews in a variety of ways; in icons we grouped them into five general categories. Each marked by a different color. Each category contains many distinct systems of thought, but as a group they share a set of basic assumptions about reality that are quite different from the basic assumptions held by the other color groups.

• Monotheism
• Judeo-Christian
• Orthodox Christianity

One God created everything, reveals himself to his creatures and is real whether anyone 'believes' in Him or not.

• Quasi-deism
• Platonic Dualism
• Gnostic
• Churchianity

A higher sacred spiritual plane is accesible to those who choose to believe in it. The lower mundane secular realm is less important.

• Modernity
• Materialism
• Neo-Darwinian
• Atheism

The physical world (matter+energy) is all that exists. All of reality can be quantified and measured with the tools of science and human reason.

• Hyper-modernity
• Greco-Roman
• Polytheism
• Multi-culturalism

Every viewpoint is equally valid. Individuals construct or choose their own realities. All things are relative to ones perceptions. Nothing is absolute.

• Pantheism
• Monism
• Cosmic Spirituality
• New Age

All things share one cosmic essence. Distinctions between people and things - the physical world we experience and emotions that tie- us to this life are either temporary illusions or outright deceptions.