Lesson video

Hello there.

Welcome to this RE lesson.

My name is Mr. Robertson, and I'm delighted that you've come to see us.

Today's lesson is in our unit with a big inquiry question, Worldviews: how do I see the world and does everyone see the same way?

This lesson is entitled, Blending worldviews and changing worldviews.

And in this lesson, we're going to look at the idea of people's religion or their worldview, and think, "Do people sometimes bring together elements from different religions and worldviews?

Do people ever change worldviews?

" Let's start and have a think about that.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain how people may blend worldviews or change their worldview over time.

We've got some keywords here.

Our first words are blended worldview, and that is a combination of ideas from different religions or beliefs In one worldview.

A personal worldview is a person's own way of understanding, experiencing, and responding to the world, which can include organized beliefs and religions.

And finally, the word, worldview, which is a person's way of understanding, experiencing, and responding to the world.

So this lesson about blending worldviews and changing worldviews has two parts.

In the first part, we're going to look at the idea of changing personal worldviews.

Let's start.

Andeep and Sofia are discussing worldviews.

Andeep says, "Some people easily understand their personal worldview, but with others, it takes a long time.

" Sophia says, "I agree, but I think that worldviews usually stay the same throughout a life.

They don't change.

" Andeep says, "That might be true for some people, but I've also heard that for some people, their worldview changes or adapts.

" I wonder who you agree more with.

Do you think like Andeep, that it can take time to work out your personal worldview and it might change over time?

Or do you think that like Sofia, that once people have worked them out, they tend to stay the same?

I wonder why you might think that.

You might want to pause the video here and talk to someone next to you, or just reflect for yourself.

Personal worldviews may adapt or change as people move through life.

And there's many different experiences that can affect this.

People's education might make a difference to the way they see the world.

And ideas may come to them.

They may learn more through education and change their ideas.

Friends and family can have a big influence on a personal worldview.

Work and a career.

As people move into the world of work, they may be exposed to different sorts of people, different ideas, and that may impact on their worldview.

Travel could take us away to different places and come take us into different cultures and experience different people, and that can shape and change our worldview.

Hobbies and interests.

We may meet different people.

We may explore different sides of ourselves, and that may impact our worldview.

Love or marriage.

We may meet a new person, develop a relationship, and that may mean our worldview becomes adapted or changed.

And finding a place to live.

We may move and settle in another country.

We might move to a different part of the country from where we live now.

The act of living independently and having different choices and decisions can change and impact someone's worldview.

So there are lots of different experiences, and they're all going to be different for each individual.

True or false?

A personal worldview can never change.

Is that true or false?

Think about what we've just been saying.

It's false, isn't it?

But why?

Well, because personal worldviews can change because of different life experiences, new knowledge, and relationship means that people might rethink their beliefs and values.

Some people change or adapt their worldview over time.

Now, to help us understand this a bit more, we're going to look at two case studies.

We're going to meet Frank.

Frank was an atheist who became a Christian.

And we're going to meet Sarah.

Sarah was a Christian who became a Muslim.

What we're going to do is we're gonna hear from them.

They're gonna tell us a little bit about their life stories.

And from that, we might be able to learn something about how worldviews might change over time.

So this is Frank.

Frank was brought up as an atheist.

He's explaining what led him to become a Christian.

Frank says, "Everything seemed to fall apart at the same time.

My marriage had been struggling for a long while, and when we finally decided to divorce, I felt like I'd failed at something huge.

Then, not long after, my mum passed.

She'd always been the person I went to when life felt too heavy, and suddenly she wasn't there.

" So we can see that Frank, he was at a critical time in his life.

He'd had two really big difficult things at once, a divorce and losing his mum.

He carries on, "A friend invited me to go to church with him and I went, not really expecting much.

I listened to the message of hope and forgiveness.

And after the service, a few members of the church came over to talk.

It was the first time in months that I felt I didn't have to pretend that everything was fine.

Over the next few weeks, people checked in, invited me for coffee, and made space for me to talk.

Their kindness made the weight I've been carrying feel lighter.

That support, combined with what I heard in the service, eventually led me to becoming a Christian.

" So I wonder, let's pause here, what was it that had happened in Frank's life and what was it about his experience of church that led him to change his worldview?

You may have pulled out what Frank is saying about meeting a community of people where he didn't have to pretend everything was okay.

He felt supported by those people, and they kind of helped lift the weight of what he was carrying off him.

And also he'd heard a message of hope and forgiveness during a service.

And for him, that made him decide to become Christian.

When someone's personal worldview changes, it's likely the way they live their life will change too.

Because worldviews aren't just about ideas.

They're about what we do, the actions we take concretely in the world.

Frank explains one way in which becoming a Christian changed the way he lives his life.

He says, "Before becoming a Christian, I focused on working hard and providing my family.

I still value these things, but I also go door store collecting for Christian Aid Week, give past my wages to charity and make time to support people in need.

" So what's changed for Frank, do you think, since his worldview has changed since becoming Christian?

What can you see that he does now that he didn't do before perhaps?

Let's meet Sarah.

Sarah was brought up as Christian.

But she explains what led her to revert to Islam.

In other words, her worldview changed from a Christian worldview to that for Muslim.

And many Muslims talk about reverting to Islam because they would argue that humans were created as Muslim as their original state.

And so one doesn't convert, but one revert to one's true nature as a Muslim.

Sarah says, "I was brought up a Christian, but as I got older, I drifted a bit.

I still believed in God, but my faith no longer felt steady or connected to anything that could support me.

I did not have a community around me, and nothing in my life gave me a steady sense of routine or stability.

When my brother became seriously ill, everything in my life felt uncertain.

My usual habits fell apart, and I felt as if I had no one to lean on.

" So like Frank, again, it's taken a big life event that has led to Sarah changing her worldview.

What was the key event in Sarah's life, do you think, from what she said?

So you may have picked out that her brother became seriously ill, and actually she was already drifting a bit in life, but that particularly made things seem like they were falling apart and she suddenly felt like she had no one really to support or care for her in life.

Sarah carries on, "A Muslim colleague noticed I was struggling and supported me in small, steady ways.

I was curious about her way of life and began to ask her questions about her faith.

Eventually, I went along to the mosque with her and was given a warm welcome there.

I began to read the Qur'an and found that what I read made sense 'cause I could see it reflected in the way the community lived.

When I began praying regularly, the rhythm and shared routines gave me a steadiness I hadn't felt in a long time.

That sense of support is what led me to revert to Islam.

" So again, what was it that Sarah found in her experience of Islam that led her to decide to revert to Islam?

So you may have noticed it started with a particular person.

That person helped her and supported her.

And from then, she went to the mosque and met a Muslim community and found the rhythm of prayer really helpful.

And that sense of community and prayer led her to change her worldview to revert to Islam.

Sarah explains how changing her personal worldview has affected her daily routines.

Because as we said, worldviews are about living, not just thinking.

Sarah says, "Before reverting to Islam, I organize my day around work of family routines.

I still follow these routines, but I also pause five times a day for salah, prepare meals according to halal guidelines, and spend time reading the Qur'an.

" So we can see that this change of worldview isn't just about thought.

It's about practices as well.

And the practice of daily prayer, changing her diet, and spending time reading the Qur'an is a new practice that's come out of her worldview change.

I'd like you to give one reason someone might adapt or change their worldview, thinking about some of the things we've heard from Frank and Sarah.

You might want to pause the video here and think a little bit about this.

You might have said, "They might be influenced by meeting someone with a different worldview.

" I wonder if you could give another reason why someone might change or adapt their worldview.

You might have said that new routines can make life feel steadier.

You might have talked about people around them being really supportive.

Frank talked about the church he went to, Sarah talked about her Muslim colleague.

You might have talked about the idea of feeling that they belong somewhere.

Sarah talked about a sense of community.

Frank talked about people checking in with him.

You might talk about experiences that make them rethink things.

Frank had his divorce and he lost his mum.

Sarah's brother was seriously ill.

So big life events can make people reevaluate or change or adapt their worldviews.

Well done if you thought of any other things as well.

Okay, we're gonna think about this idea of changing personal worldviews.

I've got a table for you here with some statements.

I'd like you to think a little bit about how important you think those are, and I'd like you to rank them out of 10.

A, belief in God is essential for a meaningful life, B, charity begins at home, C, education is key to a good life, D, family comes before friends, E, honesty is more important than success, F, prayer makes a positive difference to people's lives, G, we are responsible for our own actions.

So if you think that you really, really strongly agree with a statement, give it a 10 out of 10.

If you think, "Yeah, kind of in the middle," you might give it a five.

And if you really disagree, a one.

Then you can choose any of the numbers that you feel most appropriately fits with your worldview.

Off you go, and I look forward to seeing what you put.

The second thing I'd like you to do is thinking about your worldview as a whole and using those scores to help you.

I wonder if you feel that any values or beliefs have remained stable throughout your life.

If not, why not?

If yes, has anything ever challenged these values or beliefs?

Do you think they might be challenged in the future?

So you might think about something you agree with really strongly on your sheet and think, "Have I always thought like this?

Or is this something that's changed as I've got older?

" I wonder if any values or beliefs have developed due to life events in your own lives.

Have you moved home, started a new school, meeting new people?

What were those events and how might they have changed your worldview?

And thirdly, I wonder what a value might be you think might change as you get older.

What do you think might be different in the future?

And explain why.

You could use those scores to help you, or you could do it from anything else.

Again, really good luck.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

So you've probably had a really, really interesting discussion and thoughts.

I've got some example answers here for you, but yours may look very different.

So you might have said, "One value that stayed the same for me is believing that honesty and taking responsibility for my actions really matters.

Even when it's been difficult, that belief has stayed steady.

I expect this might be tested in the future in situations where loyalty conflicts with honesty.

" "A value that's changed for me is the idea that charity begins at home.

I used to think helping family should always come first, but meeting new people and learning about different situations has made me think more about helping people outside my own circle too.

" "A value might change in the future is believing that family comes before friends.

As I get older and more independent, I might find that friendships become important to me too.

" I'm really interested to know what you thought and how many different ideas you came up with.

Okay, in the second part of this lesson, we're going to be thinking about the blended worldviews.

So rather than changing their worldview, some people adapt the worldview they already have, or blend beliefs from different religions and worldviews.

For example, some people might bring together agnosticism plus some supernatural beliefs.

People might blend together Christianity and Paganism, or Christianity and Buddhism.

We're going to again look at some case studies of people here who have blended worldviews.

And again, what I want you to think a little bit about is here, what is it that makes this worldview interesting and different?

How do they bring together different elements of what are quite different religions and worldviews?

So why might someone develop a blended worldview?

Well, there may be a number of factors behind this.

It might be family.

Maybe they marry someone from a different religion or worldview.

It might be cultural exposure.

It might be that they read or hear or see different things that make them think in different ways.

It might be their personal life experiences, rather as we saw earlier on in the lesson that maybe make them reassess their worldview, or perhaps open them to different ideas.

And it might be about searching for meaning.

It may be that they feel that within the worldview they were currently in, they'd got to an impasse.

It wasn't really giving them what they needed.

And so they started to look elsewhere for different ways of being and different answers to life's questions.

And of course, there may be many other factors as well.

I wonder if you could think of any other examples of things that might people cause people to change or blend their worldviews.

Let's meet Zahra.

Zahra is an agnostic, which means that she's not sure whether she believes in God or not, but she has a blended worldview.

Zahra says, "I'm not religious, but I do accept the idea of karma, which is a religious teaching.

I think of karma as a form of cosmic energy or way of the universe balancing good and bad.

It helps me explain how the universe operates.

Doing good can lead to good outcomes either for myself or for others.

For example, I recently helped a new colleague who was struggling with his tasks, and later someone else supported me when I needed time off work.

" So what do we think is interesting about Zahra's worldview?

So Zahra's saying, "I don't belong to an organized religion.

I wouldn't necessarily say I was religious, but actually, I do believe in the idea of karma.

I do see this idea of the universe having a purpose and ideas of good and bad being balanced.

" And so she saw that in a recent experience where she helped somebody, and she feels that because of karma, someone held her when she needed time off work.

And that's quite a common view.

Many people believe in karma, but they wouldn't necessarily themselves as belonging to a worldview, like Hinduism or Buddhism, which believes in karma.

I wonder what you think about Zahra's worldview.

What's the missing word in what we've been talking about?

People may ideas from different religions to inform their worldview.

Excellent.

It may blend ideas.

So Zahra is blending her agnosticism with Indian Indic religious ideas of karma.

Some people have a blended worldview that brings together two very different religious traditions.

And we're gonna look at two case studies to explore this.

Paul blends Christianity and Zen Buddhism, and Michelle blends Christianity and Paganism.

Now on the surface, these may look like very different traditions.

So let's hear from Paul and Michelle about how they work in their lives.

We've got a photograph here.

I wonder what you can see here.

I wonder what these objects might be used for.

And I wonder what religion you may feel they connects to.

You may have seen things that look a little bit like cushions.

You might have seen some Buddha figures at the very top of those shelves.

Maybe are speculating that they're used in some form of Buddhist worship or meditation.

Paul, as we said, describes himself as a Christian Buddhist.

He says, "I grew up in a Christian family where church and faith were part of everyday life.

When I went to university in Sheffield, I was introduced to Zen Buddhism through my friend, Dom.

The images in the photo are zafus.

These are meditation cushions that we sit on for zazen.

Zazen is simply sitting in silent meditation.

So I wonder, "How Paul came across Zen Buddhism?

" We can hear that he found it through his friend and he something that happened to him at university.

So it was an important life event.

Leaving home, going to university.

And that broadened his horizon and he found a new religion he hadn't come across before.

We can see a photograph here of the Zen dojo, the Zen place of worship and meditation that Paul visits every week.

Paul says, "This is the Zen dojo.

I visit each week to practice zazen.

Although Zen does not teach there is a God, I still believe in God.

I find meditation helps me to experience the presence of God.

Sitting in silence is something that Jesus would do as well.

" What elements of blending can you see here in Paul's worldview?

So you may have noticed that in some ways there's a big opposite here.

Christianity believes in a theistic God, Zen teaches there is no God.

But Paul blends this together to say, "I actually do believe in God.

" But what it is in Zen, he finds really powerful is the idea of meditation and sitting in silence.

And for him, that is a way of experiencing the presence of God.

And he also feels that it's something that Jesus did as well.

Paul goes on.

He says, "Some people might think you can't blend two worldviews like this.

Zen teaches me to be present and not become trapped by craving.

It's craving that causes suffering.

This links to my understanding of Jesus as someone who taught not to worry and focus on others.

" So again, we can see elements of blending worldviews here.

Paul takes some of the Zen teachings about being present, and Zen teachings about suffering, which is caused by craving things.

He finds that really, really helpful.

But it also chimes with the way he interprets the Christian message about Jesus, who also taught about being present, not worrying, and focusing on others.

So we can see he brings together some distinctively Zen ideas and some distinctively Christian ideas.

Let's meet Michelle.

Michelle has a blended worldview.

She describes herself as both Christian and Pagan.

Michelle says, "I started going to church as a teenager, but I also found a sense of the divine and peace in nature.

For me, my spirituality is very centered on the changing seasons and a sense that God could be found as much in trees, mountains, and rivers, as in church.

This led me to explore the Pagan heritage of our country and the fact that many Pagan sites became linked to Christian saints.

So again, what things ha influenced Michelle and her worldview?

So we can see here that Michelle can see that going to church is useful.

She can experience God there.

But she's also very drawn to nature and can find God outside in nature and the seasons as well.

And she's also done some research to find out the fact that many places which are sacred to Christianity and Christian saints were originally linked to Pagan sites as well.

So she's blending these two ideas together.

We can see a picture of the altar in her kitchen.

I wonder if you can see here lots of different images.

Some are Christian images of Mary, and there are also some Pagan goddess images as well.

Michelle says, "I blend Christian and Pagan elements in my spirituality.

I honor my belief that God works through women by praying to Mary and other saints.

I also honor the Pagan idea of the goddess, as I believe that female aspects of God have been forgotten by many Christians.

" So again, what elements of blending can we see in Michelle's worldview and can we see in her photograph of her altar?

So we can see here that Michelle is bringing together Christianity and Paganism again.

Through her sort of Christian blending, she prays through Mary and other female saints because female spirituality is really important to her.

But she also honors the Pagan idea of the goddess.

So she believes that God is not just a male thing but has female aspects.

And she says that that idea has been forgotten by many Christians.

So we can see elements of blending here again.

Here are two more photographs from Michelle's house.

I wonder what the blending we can see here.

You might see on the left that she's baked some bread.

That might maybe link to ideas of harvest perhaps.

And on the right can we see a tree there with little eggs on it.

So that might link to ideas of Easter.

Michelle says, "I celebrate Christian festivals such as Easter and Christmas.

For me, these festivals have links to Pagan festivals such as the equinoxes and solstices.

At these times, they make food that links to the seasons, decorate my house with flowers, and also go to church.

I think these worldviews link strongly.

" So rather like Paul who engaged with Zen Buddhism through meditation, we can see that Michelle blends Pagan spirituality in her practices.

She celebrates Christian festivals and Pagan festivals as well, and many of those overlap together.

So Easter is very connected to this spring equinox and Christmas with the winter solstice.

And at that time, she blends those elements in the way she decorates a house and eats food linked to the seasons.

So Michelle brings Paganism and Christianity together.

I've got a true or false question for you here.

Someone with a blended worldview must fully follow all rules from each tradition they combine.

Do you think that's true or false?

Excellent.

It's false, isn't it?

Someone with a blended worldview can choose which beliefs or practices to follow from each tradition.

They don't have to try and follow everything.

Okay, let's bring together everything we've been learning.

Here are seven reasons to have a blended worldview.

I'd like you to discuss them with a partner and choose the top three reasons, and be ready to report back on why you chose them.

Think a little bit about some of the things we heard from our case studies.

It allows people different approaches for different problems.

It allows personal choice about what to believe or practice.

It allows people to change their views over time.

It helps people to live in a diverse society.

It avoids being too strict or inflexible.

It reduces conflict between people with different beliefs.

It works better in real life situations than strict rules.

So I'd like you to rank those from 1 to 7 on what you think are the most important reasons and then report back.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I wonder what you came up with your top three reasons.

You might have said, "It works better in real life situations than strict rules.

" You might have said, "It allows people different approaches for different problems.

" You might said, "It allows personal choice about what to believe or practice.

" And why did you choose those things?

When you may have thought about blending ideas, help people deal with real life problems?

Sometimes one approach doesn't fit every situation.

Paul talked about the idea of finding Zen really helpful for him to understand suffering and craving.

Personal choice was third, because it gives people freedom to decide what makes sense for them rather than following rules blindly.

And you saw Michelle talking about the fact she liked to bring out some of the what she felt were the forgotten female ideas of Christianity in her practice.

I wonder what you thought about this idea of blended worldviews.

Whether you think they are helpful or whether you think they might be unhelpful.

Let's summarize what we've learned today.

So we've learned that personal worldviews can change over time as a result of different life experiences.

We've learned that changes in a personal worldview often affect daily life, influencing routines, priorities, and actions.

We've learned respect for diverse beliefs can grow when individuals reflect and recognize values across traditions.

Blended worldviews develop when people combine elements from different religions, philosophies, or non-religious perspectives.

Examples include Pagan-Christian, Christian-Buddhist, and spiritual but not religious identities.

And influences as family, cultural exposure, and searching for meaning can shape a blended worldview.

Thanks ever so much for being with me in this lesson today.

I hope you've learned some interesting things and maybe that'll make you think about your worldview and what you think it might look like in the future.

Thank you very much.