500 years of western thought in 6 diagrams

These are some diagrams I developed to help explain the development of western thought over the last 500 years (drawing mainly from "The Universe Next Door" by James Sire). 'G' stands for God and the crown represents his rule. The circle represents the cosmos and the stick man represents us.


Theism - God is creator, ruler and sustainer. All knowledge comes from him. We are valuable because we are made in his image.










Deism - as science explained more and more, there seemed less need for God. He became the one who wound the universe up but now leaves it run its own course. His crown is gone. He's no longer ruler and sustainer.










Naturalism - if God is now so irrelevant and science can explain more and more, the next logical step is to get rid of God all together. We still have value because we are highly evolved. We can know through our logic and science.









Nihilism - God is dead but that means we must be the product of matter plus time plus chance. Evolution and the appearance of personality is just a cosmic blip. We are nothing, no more significant or valuable than a stone, slug or star. All distinctions between the cosmos and people have gone and we can have no confidence in our knowledge.








Existentialism - the despair of Nihilism is unliveable and we must rise above it. The objective harsh reality is that we have no value. So we draw a circle around ourselves and create subjective value within. The subjective is what matters and I will live as if I have value because I choose to.










Postmodernism - 6 billion people all viewing life from their circles - who can claim to have access to objective reality? And can language communicate about it anyway? The objective is gone, not just irrelevant but unknowable. All that's left is us and if you look closely you might see the crown over each of our heads.