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“You cannot ‘opt out’ of having a worldview. You can only try to have one that most accords with reality, including the whole realm of facts concerning what is genuinely good. What is true of individuals in this respect is also true of social groups and even whole societies or nations.
“One’s worldview need not be recognized as such to have its effects. Much of it lies outside our consciousness in the moment of action, embedded in our body and its social environment, including our history, language, and culture. It radiates throughout our life as background assumptions, in thoughts too deep for words. But any thoughtful observer can discern the essential outlines of what it is.
“What we assume to be real and what we assume to be valuable will govern our attitudes and our actions. Period. And usually without thinking. But most people do not recognize that they have a worldview, and usually it is one that is borrowed, in bits and pieces, from the social environment in which we are reared. It may not even be self-consistent.
“. . . [B]ecause worldview is so influential, it is also dangerous. Worldview is where we most need to have knowledge, that is, secured truth. Perhaps we cannot have knowledge of our worldview as a whole, and some parts of it will then always consist of mere belief or commitment. But for some parts we can have knowledge if we put forth appropriate efforts, and some parts of some worldviews can certainly be known to be false.”
— from Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (HarperOne, 2009), 44, 45.
* For numerous resources by Dallas Willard, see his website.
Cloud of Witnesses 