Values Survey - copy and paste into new Word Document to print
Becoming Aware of Personal Faith Assumptions
What we believe deep down, really does impact our everyday in everyway.
Use the Ultimate Questions’ survey that follows, either as a group, or individually, to develop an awareness of what you really believe. Not only our verbal responses but also our behaviours, our choices, our life rhythms, even our peer group associations need to be taken into account to get a more accurate picture of the contours of our belief system.
We have all subconsciously absorbed a framework for life, a worldview, a religion (i.e. a cosmic story), during our growing up years from those who were closest to us. As we grow older, we encounter many more messages that either strengthen our original framework or that challenge this framework and cause us to move to other positions.
Culture’s subliminal, or out in the open, brainwashing processes surround us all. All too often this happens at a subconscious level and we are hardly aware that foundational positions are changing. This subconscious drift or conscious shift continues and becomes more ingrained as we start to act out of the new framework. There may be many indications that all is not well. Inner turmoil or conflicts with family and clan may be indicators that our faith-based life framework needs attention.
The following survey primarily focuses on processing the faith perspectives from Christianity and atheistic secular liberal humanism, the two that are in a fight to the death in your life and mine. All of these statements probe our underlying faith-based assumptions. (Only # 7 is based on historical facts; whether we accept it as historical or not may be dependent on all our other assumptions.)
(Please note, I am deliberately being inconsistent with respect to the positioning of agree and disagree in the following survey. Why I have done this should become apparent at the evaluation stage.)
A) The Question of Truth – The Foundational Question.
1) There is no God to whom we are ultimately accountable. Humanity is the ultimate authority in all things.
Agree not sure disagree
2) Religious and Spiritual truths need to be revealed, they are beyond humanity’s ability to discern.
Disagree not sure agree
3) The Bible is God’s revealed word; spiritual truths are illustrated in creation.
Disagree not sure agree
4) All religions, if there is any relevance to them, ultimately lead to the same God.
Agree not sure disagree
5) Science is the measure for all truth. If science cannot prove a faith precept (i.e. there is a God, there is a spiritual dimension) it is then a myth or worse, a falsehood.
Agree not sure disagree
6) The Bible is a story about real people with a real culture, set in a real place, a story rooted in history. God has revealed himself within Jewish culture and history. History is a better guide / a more inclusive guide for truth than science. History can deal with topics like religion and faith and miracle, science cannot, other than to deny them.
Disagree not sure agree
7) The Bible provides many separate eyewitness accounts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on that one particular day in history so very long ago.
Disagree not sure agree
• How does each of the truth layers deal with this resurrection claim: historical, scientific, experiential, and religious?
B) The Questions surrounding our humanity.
8) Humans are simply highly evolved animals.
Agree not sure disagree
9) Humans are more than just body and soul; we are unique in that we have a spirit, we seek relationship with the spiritual dimension.
Disagree not sure agree
10) We have been created in God’s image. We are to be a reflection of his moral character.
Disagree not sure agree
11) Our lives are evolutionary “accidents” in the universe. Therefore our lives are inherently meaningless. We need to create our own meaning for our personal journey. (e.g. family, wealth, travel, adventure, career, my team, my celebrity, etc.)
Agree not sure disagree
• Where does the universal sense of dignity for humans come from? Even the mistreatment of the body of a deceased human is punishable by law in developed countries and frowned upon in essentially all other cultures.
C) The Question of Ethics.
12) There are no absolutes in morals (i.e. no divinely ordained guidelines for what is right and what is wrong) as there are in the physical sciences.
Agree not sure disagree
13) Humanity has a God-implanted moral imprint within its soul.
Disagree not sure agree
14) Guilt feelings are to our relationships with others and with God what pain feelings are to our physical bodies. (Both can be phantom but both, when correctly discerned, are key to our well-being and survival.)
Disagree not sure agree
15) To be mature, to be a truly free person is to be able to do as I ought, rather than as I want.
Disagree not sure agree
16) Our cultural concepts of sexuality are simply evolved social consensus, i.e. marriage definition, recreational sex, homosexuality, gender assignment, etc.
Agree not sure disagree
17) One man, one woman for life is a religious concept (ordained by the Creator - God).
Disagree not sure agree
• How would an ardent evolutionist evaluate today’s sexual revolution? What behaviours are conducive to continuing species evolution, which are detrimental?
D) The Questions surrounding Evil and Suffering.
18) Evil is personal. There is a devil and demons, evil spirits who are determined to destroy humankind and creation. The Bible teaches that they are the invisible, behind the scenes, malevolent spirits that often use human agency to accomplish their evil schemes. (E.g. Hitler or Stalin or other “monsters” in contemporary culture are not acting alone, the Evil One is helping, inspiring, possibly even haunting them.)
Disagree not sure agree
19) The devil and sin are simply primitive religious constructs for the inadequacies of our existence.
Agree not sure disagree
20) Humanity will evolve out of its present inadequacies. Evolution and science will solve the problems plaguing humankind.
Agree not sure disagree
21) All human beings are born with a bent towards destructive self-interest, towards evil.
Disagree not sure agree
22) Humanity’s tendency towards evil is simply the result of environment, bad parenting, lack of education, and/or incomplete evolution.
Agree not sure disagree
23) Suffering is just a negative that must be eliminated or, if that is not possible, faced grim-faced, stoically. There is no meaning in suffering.
Agree not sure disagree
• Why does evil come in waves? (Wars, famines, diseases, social collapses, etc.) It is an historical fact, all cultures eventually do collapse. Will our culture collapse as well or have we evolved to the point where this historical reality no longer applies?
E) The Questions surrounding the Future.
24) There is no life after death. Death is the end of me.
Agree not sure disagree
25) There is a Judgment Day. Humans will individually be held accountable for their actions. This is a moral universe. Our human longing for justice is evidence for this future reality.
Disagree not sure agree
26) This cosmos operates simply as cause and effect. Death is the end. If I can escape the effects of my choices till death, then I have, to a degree at least, outmaneuvered this cause and effect reality.
Agree not sure disagree
27) The seemingly universal and age-old longing for life after death is simply a learned cultural response to our fear of dying or not-being.
Agree not sure disagree
28) We all have dreams and longings. (i.e. a better life, making the world a better place, leaving a legacy, life after death, unconditional love, perfect community, etc.) These longings should also be seen as memories of something lost during the fall of man in Genesis 3.
Disagree not sure agree
Evaluation
To the degree that we responded on the left side of the page, to that degree we have bought into the atheistic worldview (liberal humanism).
To the degree that we responded on the right side of the page, to that degree we have bought into the Judeo-Christian worldview.
If our responses are in the center, or all over the place, then our heart-held positions may be shifting. If that is the case then we need to consider; are we shifting our belief system consciously, or by choice, or without our knowing?
Wrapping up Appendix B
This personal study of what we believe with respect to the Ultimate Life Questions should help us recognize more clearly the meta-story that is influencing our lives the most.
The question then remains, do we really want to live that story or do we need to make some radical changes in our lives more in keeping with the meta-story that we do want to live?
Being aware of our own personal worldview and our core assumptions may help explain some of the behavioural patterns within our lives that may be so troubling to us. There can be no lasting change without understanding and changing the meta-story that undergirds the assumptions we make about these Ultimate Life Questions. This story nourishes the roots of these troubling behaviours.
The meta-story that we do want to live, is best lived in community with like-storied people.
