Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay

Based on the required topic study materials, write a reflection about worldview and respond to following:
In 250-300 words, explain the Christian perspective of the nature of spirituality and ethics in contrast to the perspective of postmodern relativism within health care. Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay
In 250-300 words, explain what scientism is and describe two of the main arguments against it.
In 750-1,000 words, answer each of the worldview questions according to your own personal perspective and worldview:
What is ultimate reality?
What is the nature of the universe?

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What is a human being?
What is knowledge?
What is your basis of ethics?
What is the purpose of your existence?
Remember to support your reflection with the topic study materials.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay
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Analysis of Worldview: Christian Perspective as Opposed to Postmodern Relativism in Healthcare

The nature of spirituality and ethics in the Christian perspective is dependent on the belief in a higher being, God. In the healthcare scenario, spirituality means that one believes that this higher being is the one that holds the key to health, wellness, and disease. To be deeply spiritual therefore means that one has the power to call upon God when they are sick and they get healed without even having to go to the hospital. In the same manner, the belief in God has the potential to heal anyone else that is prayed for in order that God can intervene and heal them. Christian spirituality teaches that God is above everything. He can conquer disease and restore wellness without having to take any medication at all. In fact, Christian spirituality maintains that for one to get sick, God has to allow it to either test his/ her faith or let him discover the power of God. This argument is supported by the case of Job in the Christian Holy Bible. As for ethics, the God of Christianity directs that all Christians must do good (beneficence) at all times (Gula, 2000) and shun doing evil (non-maleficence). Hence the greatest commandment that one should always love their neighbor as they love themselves. Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay

Contrasted with the Christian worldview, postmodern relativism is a cynical look at the reality of wellness and disease. It seeks to question reason and the scientific knowledge that informs modern medicine and treatment. Postmodern relativism would question medical and nursing interventions aimed at treating disease because according to it, all actions possess no certainty and their usefulness is only relative. In other words, there is nothing absolute or absolutely certain in healthcare, including the so-called evidence-based therapies. How an illness is understood in healthcare and how it is remedied is therefore dependent on how the person looking at it perceives it (Guignan, 2020).

Description of and Arguments against Scientism

Scientism is the belief that scientific knowledge is the ultimate medicine and panacea to all the problems of the world. This includes illness and disease. According to it, all knowledge in the world comes from science and scientific endeavours. Also, all phenomena on Earth and in the entire universe can be explained by science according to the philosophy of scientism. It is during the latter stages of the historical period known as “Renaissance” that scientism began to take root. As Christopher Columbus was discovering the America’s, Galileo Galilei and Rene Descartes were beginning to question knowledge that had been held as true for ages. These could be considered as the de facto founders of the scientism movement Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay. Up to the time that these men of science started to question assumptions like the flatness of the Earth, the word of the Church and the ancient philosophical thinkers was unchallenged and divine. All intellectuals believed these assumptions to be true so much so that anyone who questioned their veracity was considered to be insane. As a matter of fact, most of these early scientism advocates found themselves in jail for their observations. Luckily, their observations were factual scientific realities that would soon be proved to be true (Burnett, 2020).

Like any form of believe, cult, or movement; scientism also has arguments that are presented against it and its proponents. Two of these are worth discussing here. According to Crosby (2014), the free will of a human being is a phenomenon that even scientism cannot claim to be in a position to explain. To prove this point, the science of neurology and neurosurgery is still not capable of explaining the physiology behind the free will, morality, or right and good as functions of the human brain. Moreover, there are still huge areas of the brain whose functions science still cannot explain. Therefore, science still cannot purport to be able to explain in full the process of human thought and free will, as these appear to be extremely abstract phenomena devoid of any physical footprints. The second argument against scientism is its reliance on the replicability of observations. That an experiment in science can be replicated with the same results obtained in a different place is the very hallmark of science. This is the whole concept of reliability and validity of research findings. Hall (2018) posits that the absence of replicability of past observations does not necessarily mean no new knowledge is generated.

Ultimate Reality

So, what exactly is ultimate reality? According to the online Oxford dictionary, the word “ultimate” means “being or happening at the end of a process” or “final.” Therefore, ultimate reality is the absolute reality that remains after all beliefs, cults, assumptions, and conjectures have been removed. For example, the ultimate reality as at now is that the Earth is round, living things need oxygen gas to survive, a human being can only give birth to a human being and not a goat, and only human beings have the capacity to generate original speech (parrots can only copy!). Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay

The Nature of the Universe

The universe is everything that is in existence in whatever state it is in, on earth and beyond. As human beings, we occupy just a tiny speck in the universe that is planet Earth. We have not even been able to physically find out what is in existence in a neighboring planet in the solar system. Galaxies upon galaxies make up the entire universe. In a nutshell, therefore, the nature of the universe is still a mystery yet to be unravelled by humans on Earth.

A Human Being

A human being is part of the living things that are found on planet Earth. As things stand now, he is the most intelligent of all the animals found on Earth and endowed with the capacity to reason. Among all the animals and living things on Earth, it is only the human being that possesses free will and a sense of right and wrong. However, these special faculties are still not possible to explain using the current available knowledge, be it scientific or otherwise. Through his superior brain, the human being has been able to make sense of the Earth and use its resources in ways that can benefit him. He has been able to carefully study his body and identify how and when most of the diseases affecting it occur. In this manner, he has also tried and observed which interventions are able to treat these diseases and which ones cannot. However, despite all this ingenuity, the human being has not been able to to conquer death or prevent it.

Knowledge

Knowledge is an abstract concept whose presence can be demonstrated but whose exact existence cannot be physically proven. Human beings are not born with knowledge. They have to acquire it after being born. This is possible because the human brain is capable of learning and storing information learnt. However, physically demonstrating where knowledge resides in the human brain has not been possible to date. The best that can be presumed is where knowledge resides in the human brain. In fact, the abstract phenomenon that is knowledge is made even more complex by the reality of the dichotomy of mind and brain. The brain is a physical reality that can be touched, whereas the mind is an abstract reality that has no physical proof. Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay

My Personal Basis of Ethics

My personal basis of ethics leans more on the Christian worldview of doing only what is good to others (beneficence). It is informed by resisting the urge to bring harm upon others (non-maleficence), even if they have done something that hurts me. This is the unconditional love of the neighbor that Jesus taught as the greatest commandment in the Christian Holy Bible. My personal basis of ethics is also informed by the need to let others exercise their free will without constraints (autonomy). This is because human rights inform all of us that all human beings are born free and they must remain so without anyone curtailing their God-given freedom. Lastly, my personal basis of ethics is informed by the need to accord justice to everyone. I believe that resources should not only be shared equally, but also that all human beings should have access to basics of life and health wherever they are, regardless of their race, color, creed, religion, beliefs, culture, or socio-economic status.

The Purpose of My Existence

Following from my personal basis of ethics above, my belief of my purpose of existence also leans more on the Christian worldview of leaving the world better than I found it. I believe that I am in existence to do good and impact the world positively, touching the lives of fellow human beings through healing and alleviating suffering that is caused by disease. Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay

References

Burnett, T. (2020). What is scientism? American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.aaas.org/programs/dialogue-science-ethics-and-religion/what-scientism

Crosby, J.F. (2014). Against scientism. Public Disclosure: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/04/12991/

Duignan, B. (2020).Postmodernism. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy

Gula, R.M. (2000). Spirituality and ethics in healthcare. Health Progress, 17-19. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/health-progress/spirituality-and-ethics-in-healthcare-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Hall, S. (April 5, 2018). The philosophical case against scientism. Quillette. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://quillette.com/2018/04/05/philosophical-case-scientism/ Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory Essay