Interview Questionnaire: Your Name And Interviewee’s Name

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Interview Questionnaire Your name: Interviewee’s name: Interviewee’s email address: Interviewee’s phone number: Length of interview: Date of interview: 1. How did you come to believe in your worldview? Were you born into a family that believed it or did you choose your worldview later in life? 2. Have you seriously questioned and/or examined your worldview? Have you changed worldviews at any point in your life? 3. Why do you think most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the big worldview questions like the ones below? 4. What is the greatest challenge and greatest strength of your worldview? 5. What is the best objection against your worldview, and what is the best evidence for your worldview? 6. Have you tested your worldview? If so, how? How well did it hold up? 7. In what ways does your worldview function as a type of compass or roadmap to guide or direct your living? Provide brief answers to the following specific worldview questions: 1. Ultimate Reality: What kind of God, if any, actually exists? 2. External Reality: Is there anything beyond the universe? 3. Knowledge: What can be known and how can we know it? 4. Origin: Where did I come from? 5. Identity: Who am I? Who are humans? 6. Location: Where am I? 7. Morals: How should I live? 8. Values: What should I value? 9. Predicament: What is humankind’s basic problem? 10. Resolution: How can humankind’s problem be solved? 11. Destiny: Will I survive the death of my body? What happens when we die? Any other thoughts/ideas: 1. I was born in a Chinese family in the British colony of Singapore, my parents were basically illiterate migrants from China so they did not directly influence my worldview very much. I spent ten years at a Catholic school where I received my knowledge, morals and worldview from Catholic priests and teachers who escaped from communist China. 2. My most serious challenge through my worldview was when after I got married at age 26, my young wife had cancer and died a terrible death when we were both just 30! I was completely devastated. I question my own existence and that was when I sought refuge in religion and became formally baptized a Catholic. This Christian religious view remained until recently when I turned 60 and had close encounter with Buddhist teachings and I turned vegetarian. Since Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion, it does not conflict with my Catholicism. So in my own unique way, I am a mix of East and West, and maintain a yin/yang worldview and sometimes I can pick and choose my response depends on the question or issue. 3. Since the end of Second World War 75 years ago there has never been a serious global conflicts, famines or destruction that caused people to question their existence and worldview. Maybe the current COVID 19 crisis that may end up killing ½ million around the world is the first such serious existential challenge, but the effects are still not wide enough and devastating enough to cause most people to question their own existence. 4. The greatest strength is that my popular Christian views are shared by at least a billion of other believers and Christianity is the backbone of most advanced countries in the West. Of course, in the last 30-40 years Eastern philosophies have begun to challenge this Western-centric worldview, led by India, Japan and now China. As such, the biggest challenge for a person like me is how to “sit on the fence”—and continue to travel, work, and live in both the East (Singapore and China) and the West (Europe and the US), which I had successfully done for the past 46 years since graduating from college. 5. I can see any objection to my worldview coming from both sides of the spectrum. But there is a class of internationalists like myself who are well-travelled, multilingual, multicultural that maintains such a Yin/Yang worldview. We could choose our preference depending on the question and challenge we are faced with. 6. It is very hard to design a test. But if life itself is a test, then I have done well in my career and my life, having lived around the world and so far my worldview held up wonderfully well and I am accepted in most communities I choose to function in. 7. I'm able to use different aspects of eastern philosophy and western values as road maps to direct my work and life, whether it is in China, in Singapore, in Brussels (where I worked as a EU-diplomat) or in the United States. For example, I run my current family of four using China Confucian teachings but at work I am a strict adherent to western legal systems and intellectual property rights. 1. I believe in the Christian version of a universal singular omnipresent and omnipotent God. 2. This question is a contradiction by itself. If by “universeâ€, it means what we can observe then they could be other universes side-by-side or just empty space beyond. But if by “universeâ€, it means everything that exists, then there is nothing beyond the universe. So the best answer is - I don't know. 3. What can be known is something we can measure. Then our senses limit what we can measure. That is why spiritual things cannot be proven because we cannot measure them. We thus don’t know whether spirit or God exists. 4. My Christian belief is that I was created by God, but as a trained scientist I of course believe in evolution. So I came from God’s creation that passed down through evolution. 5. God created the earth 4.5 billion years ago, and life about 4 billion years ago, and I am at the end of a long series of evolutionary changes and part of a seven billion members of the species called Homo Sapiens – or “humansâ. 6. Physically I am where I am now. To be precise, I am living in a condominium in the City of Fremont in Northern California. Spiritually, I'm everywhere. 7. I should live as a brother to all mankind, and a faithful believer of God. 8. I should value faith, love, human life, animal life, nature and the environment. 9. Humankind's basic problem is greed and selfishness. 10. It can never be solved and I believe earth and humankind may end either through nuclear war or total environmental disaster. 11. Yes, I like to think so. My body will die but my spirit will remain forever.

Paper For Above instruction

The interviewee’s worldview, shaped through personal experiences, cultural influences, and religious beliefs, reflects a complex synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophies. This individual was born in Singapore into a family of migrant parents, who, being illiterate, had minimal direct influence on his worldview. Instead, his formative years were heavily influenced by Catholic education and exposure to Christian teachings, which laid the foundation for his initial worldview. His faith was profoundly challenged by personal tragedy when his wife succumbed to cancer, prompting him to deepen his religious commitment by converting to Catholicism and seeking solace in Christian beliefs about life and death.

Over time, his worldview evolved further through exposure to Buddhist teachings, which, he states, do not conflict with his Christian faith since Buddhism is a philosophy rather than a religion. This blend of beliefs exemplifies his Yin/Yang worldview, embracing both Eastern and Western principles, and allowing him to adapt his perspectives based on context. This duality enables him to navigate life and work seamlessly across cultures, exemplified by his career as an EU diplomat working in China, Singapore, Brussels, and the United States.

The individual perceives the biggest challenge in his worldview as maintaining a balance between Eastern and Western philosophies, especially as Eastern philosophies challenge Western-centric worldviews. His religious strength lies in the widespread influence of Christianity, which is shared by over a billion believers and forms the backbone of many Western nations. The greatest strength of his worldview is its adaptability and the ability to function effectively in diverse cultural environments.

He admits that testing his worldview is challenging, but considers his successful personal and professional life as evidence of its robustness. He functions as a moral and ethical guide, employing Confucian ideals at home and Western legal principles at work, demonstrating practical application of his philosophical beliefs.

Regarding fundamental cosmological and metaphysical questions, the interviewee aligns with Christian doctrine, asserting belief in a universal, omnipresent, and omnipotent God. When questioned about the universe’s scope, he acknowledges the scientific view of evolution and that beyond our observable universe, it is unknown whether anything exists. His understanding of knowledge is limited to measurable phenomena, thus he admits spirituality and the existence of God cannot be empirically proven.

His origin story combines religious creation beliefs with scientific understanding, stating that humans descended through evolution from a divine act of creation. He places himself geographically in Fremont, California, but considers his spiritual presence to be everywhere, reflecting his dual worldview.

Morally, he advocates living as a brother to all mankind, valuing faith, love, human and animal life, and environmental preservation. His primary existential concern is rooted in human greed and selfishness, which he believes will inevitably lead to catastrophic events such as nuclear war or environmental collapse that threaten humanity’s survival. Nevertheless, he maintains a belief in an eternal spirit surviving bodily death, viewing this as a core aspect of his faith.

References

• Aristotle, & (2000). Nicomachean Ethics. Hackett Publishing Company.
• Burton, R. (2002). The Inner Life of the Bible. Oxford University Press.
• Gombrich, R. (1999). The Essential Thinking of the Buddha. Rider Books.
• Hick, J. (1989). Philosophy of Religion. Prentice Hall.
• Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a Psychology of Being. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
• Plantinga, A. (2011). Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. Oxford University Press.
• Thompson, J. (2010). Faith and Reason in the Fourteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.
• Vardy, P. (2013). The Puzzle of God. Oneworld Publications.
• Wong, D. (2017). Confucian Ethics and the Moral Life. Routledge.
• Ying, L. (2019). East Meets West: Philosophical Crossroads. Harvard University Press.