In strictest terms, to “orient” oneself is to face the east as the place of the rising sun. It so happens that, in terms of fundamental assumptions about reality, we would do far better to face the Ancient Near East, to look upon the dawn of humanity, as the source of clues.
Even if I could convince you that were true, I cannot make your eyes see what mine see. All I can do is offer to describe what I believe I see, and you can make of it what you will.
As I note often, today’s Western Civilization is a blend of proto-European mythology and Greco-Roman learning. That’s pretty much the substance of the pinnacle of Western culture we call The Enlightenment. In particular, the US is Anglo-Saxon mythology with some pretense to Greco-Roman philosophy. Our Constitution is very much an Enlightenment document. The value system is what Anglo-Saxons learned from reading the classical literature, with a little eclectic mixing from a few other European sources.
If there is any one word that describes today’s American culture, as previously noted here, it is solipsism. However, that is little different from the essential nature of the Fall, that awful choice mankind made in the Garden of Eden.
And the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5 MKJV)
Notice that the issue is not knowing the nature of things descriptively, but the nature of things morally. That’s the fundamental question of all valid human consideration. Everything else is just details. Furthermore, God has proved that He can remake factual reality on the fly, but that morality reflects His own living character woven into Creation. So the question is not the being of things in our world. And our interest in the doing of things — how things tend to work — is secondary only to how we can use them to find God’s favor. One of my favorite taglines is: All Creation is but a tool for His glory.
So the fundamental question for humanity is more of instrumentality in light of commitment. We have a vast ocean of literature striving mightily to define morality from any possible source except revelation, but it’s simply not possible. You will have to start somewhere with some basic assumptions about good and evil, because logic itself cannot answer the question. If you start from your inner assumptions, it’s just solipsism.
The only useful place to start is with the acknowledgement of our sinful nature. We are fallen and worthy of damnation by default. We then must come and make peace with the One who made all things. Making peace with Him includes a fundamental assumption that it will require all your living resources until you die. Thus, the only valid question for us in this life is what pleases our Creator.
