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The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire5/12/2023 UND is a book about Western world views - you'll need to read missiological literature for an examination of Islamic, animist or other world views. I read the first edition of this book as an undergraduate, and it provided a valuable guide to the concept of worldview - that people arrive at different conclusions about the world because they have different basic assumptions. If you must read this one, stop just before the end-trust me, you’ll feel a lot better about it. But simply dismissing billions of people as not living a good life is both insulting and deflating. That is not to say that Christian theism isn’t a worthy worldview for some people. After a competent exploration of the world of philosophy, he dumps all but one into a bucket labelled “Not Worth Your Time.” The conclusion he brings the book to is to that to live a “well-examined” life, one must be a Christian theist. But sadly, it’s the last chapter that wallops you on the side of the head. And his dutiful explanations of each school are decent I’ll give him that. He indeed covers the whole spectrum, from theism to nihilism to naturalism to existentialism to postmodernism. Ostensibly, it goes through the six to ten (depending on how you count and group them) major philosophical schools and examines each one for strengths and flaws. James Sire caught me with my proverbial pants down (so to say) with his Universe Next Door.
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