Customer Reviews

The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 5th Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In The Universe Next Door, author James Sire discusses the eight main worldviews that are held by different individuals in the twentieth century and then provides seven basic yet probative questions to help the reader recognize the primary presuppositions that underlie each main belief system. Further discussion is provided to help the reader analyze the cohesiveness and validity of each worldview presented. The history of each worldview is discussed in great detail so that the reader can see the progression of each view, why it arose and what events led to its overall acceptance or denial among the masses. Mr. Sire then compares and contrasts each worldview with others mentioned in the book, evaluating each worldview in turn. The emphasis is on awareness and understanding, encouraging the reader to become more consciously aware of what they believe, why they believe what they do, and how this belief colors the way they view life. The book concludes with a detailed chapter, entitled, "The Examined Life" that summarizes the basic points made throughout the book and then provides tools intended to help the leader choose the most logical, cohesive and consistent worldview.


Overall, the Universe Next Door is a very thorough, and yet manageable, discussion of the eight (or six, depending on how once classifies the material) main belief systems that exist in today's culture. Presented in a somewhat relaxed manner, the language used by Mr. Sire ensures understandability and readability, successfully moving difficult philosophical topics out of the university classroom and placing them in the hands of the layman. Because each worldview is discussed in relation to the six main questions presented at the beginning of the book, analysis of all views is both easy and consistent.

Written more as an informative discussion, the author's views, when present, are subdued. The emphasis is not on demonstrating the validity of one worldview over another but instead, in looking at the overall cohesiveness and non-contradictory nature of each worldview in turn. The reader is then left to make their own evaluation based on the information given.

Review provided by Jennifer Slattery, author of Shatterproof: Developing A Faith That Stands and Journey To The Ice

This is a book that I would not normally read, but it was required reading for a Worldviews course I took at Colorado Christian University. The basics of Christian theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism, Eastern pantheistic monism, New Age philosophy, and postmodernism are explained. We need to know what our worldview is as well as the worldview of others. Examining our thoughts and behaviors helps us to understand ourselves and communicate with those around us. To not evaluate how and why we think and act the way we do is simply foolish. What is our purpose? What happens to us after we die? How do we know what is right and wrong? These are some of the vital questions that we must tackle that are addressed in this book. I am thankful that this book was assigned to my class.

The Universe Next Door is an insightful look at different world views. It begins with a chapter on Christian theism followed by Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Existentialism and beyond in a logical progression. This is readable to the layperson, but I found I needed to read some chapters over to grasp the concepts.

Dr. Sire begins his book by making the claim that his book is not a work of philosophy. I can only assume that he makes this statement as a preemptive response to philosophical objections to the book. The core argument that Sire rests his conclusions on are emotional ones, not logical ones. Sire gives a poor introduction to many worldviews, and dismisses a majority of them on the basis that they result in Nihilism if one is intellectually honest with themselves.

Before deconstructing these philosophies, Sire lays out eight questions which a worldview must answer. Little reason is given for these questions in this book, but he apparently gives ample justification for these questions in his book "Naming the Elephant," which I have not yet had the pleasure of reading. Sire then discusses Christian Theism, and concludes that it provides happy answers to each of the questions. He does not go into the internal problems with this worldview--as he does with each of the others that he discusses. It might be rightly argued that there *are* answers to the internal problems in Christianity as a worldview, but that there is not ample space in the book to discuss them (E.G. "How are omniscience and free will reconciled?" or "How are God's Omnipotence and Omnibenevolence compatible with the existence of evil?"). However, the exact same argument can be made for the other worldviews discussed!

Sire discusses Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Existentialism, Eastern Pantheistic Monism, New Age Philosophy, Postmodernism, and Islam, and concludes that each (minus Islam, perhaps) is internally inconsistent and leads logically to rejection of all truth and morality. To do so, Sire must (at least in some cases) present very narrow versions and blatant misrepresentations of these worldviews! For instance, Sire makes the claim (many times) that naturalists categorically dismiss the existence of anything beyond the physical world. While this may be an accurate depiction of classical naturalism, I do not know of many modern examples of naturalists who would make so radical a claim (perhaps saying instead that it is very difficult if not impossible for us to observe the existence of such things and we must be careful when we draw conclusions about the physical from our thoughts about the non-physical). The misrepresentations go further when he tries to align Douglass Adams with Nihilism. Of course, generalizations must be made, but the misrepresentations and simplifications that he makes are on par with saying "Catholicism is basically a worldview that believes if archbishops vote a man into the office of the pope, that man is morally infallible while sitting on his pope-chair and wearing his pope-hat." It is a simplification and ignores a very complex and rich philosophy within that worldview (if it is accurate to the worldview at all!). Further, there are many worldviews aside from Christian Theism which do not fall into Sire's Nihilistic trap. Sire might argue that their proponents have not fully thought their worldview through... but I would argue that Sire has likely not thought their worldview through entirely, either.

To Sire's credit, he does strongly encourage further reading--with a caveat. He addresses the richness and diversity of various philosophies in his final chapter succinctly. He simply states that there are other ideas, but they can all be reduced to the answers given for the eight worldview questions. This is, quite simply, incorrect. The answers to the eight questions he attributes to each worldview are backed up by examples drawn from people that Sire assumes follow a given worldview (E.G. Carl Sagan for Naturalism, Deepak Chopra for New Age, etc). He necessarily chooses a subset of the worldview, and in doing so ignores that many people who could reasonably be aligned with "naturalism" would strongly disagree with some of the answers he attributes to the worldview (including Carl Sagan with Naturalism's answers, as a matter of fact!). He further claims that there are a finite number of answers to each of the questions, but gives no justification for this claim (and a creative mind can imagine examples that produce an infinite number of answers). In the end, Sire's only strong recommendation for further reading is caught up in the holy texts (and the commentaries on them) of Christianity and Islam. He indicates that Theism offers the only way out of Nihilism, and that one must try to find the right version of Theism. To waste too much time looking into other inherently flawed worldviews is subtly discouraged.

Further (and this is important), Sire is notably derisive toward other worldviews. Sire makes no claim of being objective (he even states openly that he is *not* being objective), but a more measured objectivity might do something for his argument to persuade one to his worldview. Sire puts down all eastern philosophy by saying "Eastern `thought' is like that." The quoted "thought" implies (and subtly leads the reader to believe) that an entire philosophy of that part of the world is entirely unreasonable. He further makes the claim that this worldview is the primary cause of what he calls "the cheapness of life" in the East, ignoring economic and societal effects that have less to do with how one views the world and more to do with the barren conditions in which many societies live. For other examples of such bias, I encourage you to look at other reviews of this edition and earlier ones. For these glaring simplifications, misrepresentations, and examples of callousness, I believe that the book does not warrant a third star.

Sire makes the claim that science oversteps its bounds, and argues in his chapter on Existentialism that all scientific conclusions *should* be made on the basis of their alignment with a literal Biblical account of events (and, by extension, ignore what the data actually say). This is, perhaps, the most damning aspect of his argument. Sire insists that we can only have real knowledge by accepting Biblical Literalism (or, perhaps, literalism of *some* religious book), and that we must reject any data, reason, or knowledge that contradicts this on the basis that we are flawed. In short, in order to be sure of any knowledge, you just have to reject certain facts that are a product of this knowledge! As a scientist, I must say that Sire presumes to know quite a lot about science, particularly about quantum and particle physics. To me, this makes his jabs at Deepak Chopra more than a bit ironic. I highly suspect someone who makes philosophical claims based on quantum mechanics or particle physics that is not directly backed up with mathematics and citation of the primary literature.

The emotional argument that Sire makes is that it is highly uncomfortable to live in a world in which there is no transcendent and absolute standard for knowledge or morality; as such, we should select a worldview which insists upon such standards. Simply stated, "If we follow this version of this worldview, we are left with no ultimate objective standard for truth or morality. That makes me very sad, and it should make you sad, too. Therefore, no one should follow this worldview." He does not state this openly that I can recall, but it underlies his premise. It is an unstated assumption. But, really, why *should* our comfort have anything to do with reality? If a worldview states that there are no absolute, eternal, and external standards for truth and morality, it does not reduce our moral compulsions or our consensus on what appears to be true. Living in a universe of approximations and subjectivity is certainly startling, but this should not have bearing on what is, as Sire states, "really real."

On an aesthetic note, the book is poetic. Sire, if nothing else, is a rhetorician, as his PhD in English will attest to. This makes for a playful read. I do wish that he had been a bit more consistent in his answering of the eight worldview questions in each chapter (He answers the questions in order for Christian Theism and Islam, but out of order for most or all of the others), but I believe he did this in order to maintain a logical flow to his work.

This book gives a very good insight into the Christian worldview, and Sire mentions from the beginning that he is speaking without apology from a Christian perspective. For that honesty, he earns a second star. If one wishes to understand Christian justifications for the Christian worldview, this book will certainly give them that. However, Sire does not follow through with the implications of his emotional appeal (E.G. aforementioned conflicts between Biblical Literalism and Science). If a non-Christian wishes to try to understand things from a Christian perspective, this book will be invaluable. However, you will do yourself a disservice by reading only this book and looking no further. There are many more ideas than the narrow view Sire assigns to each worldview in this book. Even Christian readers would do well to look further--for if you understand (even without accepting!) the philosophy, worldviews, and ideas of others you will be more equipped to converse with them in a meaningful way. You will be better able to span the gaps of understanding to help them see *your* worldview.

Proverbs 19:8 "He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers." (NIV)
Matthew 10:16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." (NIV)

This is a great book in terms of introducing various worldviews that are prevalent in Western societies. It starts with eight basic questions all human beings ask. In each of the eight/ten/eleven (depending how you count), answers to each of these questions are given, with a lot of elaborations.

For those worldviews that have been existing for centuries, explanations and descriptions are detailed, in depth, insightful and systematic. These include Christian theism, deism, existentialism, Islamic theism. But for those that have not yet been fully developed, the text is unavoidably messy and disorganized, which looks like a research paper. For example, New Age and postmodernism. Eastern religions pose an influence but it was not fully developed in the Western world because it cannot be understood using logic and reasons taught in schools.

Well done! I got this product on time...ordered a week before classes began. Product was new with no writtings or highlights.

Mr. Sires provides a methodical examination of common worldviews. Regardless of your background, it provides an examination worth considering. Another reviewer comments that Mr. Sires takes unfounded leaps of faith, and yet the reviewer provides no basis for his opinion. The reviewer states the Mr. Sires is biased. So what? Truth is inherently biased, and truth is certainly a good thing! If the logic is good, and the logic points to a particular conclusion, the the conclusion is good. Bias is neither good or bad. Really, the question is, "are the statements true?" And if they are true, are we willing to examine our own biases to see if they are based on a solid foundation or bias?

Nope - you find out how and were worldviews were born and when the faded. Some are still alive and well. Nevertheless you'll have no trouble figuring out what your worldview is and why its so important. The text is informative and eye opening.

If you're looking for an objective and unbiased catalog of world views, this is not it.

The author, who is a Christian, begins by outlining Christian theism. Of all the world views in the book, it is the only one he does not criticize, and he continues to talk about it throughout the book. He points out all the flaws he personally finds in every other belief system, then ends by telling the reader that Christianity is the best choice out of all of them. The logic he presents is so flawed that I'm surprised it holds up in anyone's view, including the author's.

Since the author is so clearly biased, I do not trust the accuracy of the information he has given. I would definitely opt for another, more objectively presented book instead.

This is a must read for anyone, especially any student entering college. It really helped me make sense out of my college education and evaluate the culture around me. Read it today!