On philosophy, religion, beliefs, and morals.

A rather complex topic, eh?

Note: I don’t want to offend anyone with this. If you don’t agree with me, whatever. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just going to sorta rant about stuff.


Anyways. I’m an analytical person. I like to understand things, to be able to see how and why they work. Because of this, I want to understand life. I want to know why I am here, why you are here, and why we do the things we do. Therefore, I’ve always had a vague interest in psychology and philosophy, and have spent a lot of time thinking about these things.

Religion serves as an answer for most people – it explains why everyone is here, why we do what we do, and why we should do it. However, being an analytical person, I’ve always had difficulty accepting most of the world’s major religions. They all seemed to conflict with science or logic in some way. And this just didn’t work for me. I never really felt right with the idea of suspending logic and reasoning, and relying only on faith. Logic is what we use to understand the world around us – why must it suddenly stop working in this case? If there is some sort of God, why doesn’t he/she exist in a way that can be logically explained?

The other thing that always bothered me about (organized) religion was the elitism that seemed to follow it. So many of the religions teach that theirs is the only true path, and that anyone else was wrong and would burn in hell or whatever. This never made sense to me… someone born in a different country in a different culture would never have a chance to be exposed to your religion, and would instead be raised with their native religion… what are they doing wrong? Why do they deserve damnation, just because they followed what their parents taught them?

And then so many religions also have to be discriminatory. If you preach love and peace, stick to your word. If you say that God loves everyone, that means he loves EVERYONE – including people of other faiths, cultures, sexual orientations, political parties, etc.


Soooo. Enough about bashing other religions. Now, to the more interesting part… what I believe.

When figuring out what I believe, I tried to start with as many basic truths as possible – things that made logical sense, and could be agreed upon regardless of your religion. For instance: humans enjoy pleasure, and dislike pain. Our nervous systems are made in a way that some things please us, while others cause us pain. Things that cause us pain are usually dangerous, so the pain serves as a warning. Because of this, it can be inferred that we are not meant to experience pain. Therefore, causing pain to others, be it physical, emotional, or whatever, is bad. And bringing pleasure to others, by making them feel happy, loved, and cared for, is good. In addition, making yourself happy, as long as it does not cause pain to others, is good. And causing pain to yourself is bad.

Those basic guidelines serve more or less as my system of morals. They make some sort of rational sense, which I personally find more comforting than some religious text telling me what is and isn't right. Besides, the moral systems of almost all of the major religions line up with my own pretty well - loving others, being peaceful, etc., all fit under my guidelines.

On a more metaphysical/spiritual side... I'm still not really sure what I think. Right now, it goes something like this: the world is a very complex thing, and we all have different ways of viewing and understanding it. Everyone percieves things differently, based on their own experiences and beliefs. Some might percieve the world to include a God, while others might percieve five, six, or even hundreds of gods. Still others will percieve no gods at all. One person might see a "miraculous" rescue of some sort, and percieve it as an act of God. A second person may percieve it as a random act of chance, while a third person might see how exactly physically possible it actually was, and that therefore there was no "miracle" involved. In my opinion, all three of these are correct ways of interpreting the incident... they are merely just different ways of trying to comprehend the amazing complexity of the universe.

Because of this, I believe that all faiths, including non-faiths such as agnosticism and athiesm, are correct. Each one is just a different way of looking at the same thing.

As for what happens after we die... I'm not sure about this. I sorta like the idea that people are in control of what happens to them when they die. People who think they will go to heaven will go to heaven. People who think they will go to hell will go to hell. People who think life just ends will... just end. People who think they will be reincarnated will be reincarnated. None of these are wrong, it all depends on what you think. Since none of these can be proven (or disproven!) logically, I refuse to believe that any particular one of these is correct and that the others are wrong. I just think that your perception of the world after death will depend on what you think it should be.

In addition, I have a rather interesting perspective on prayers/wishes/goals. To me, these are all the same things. A person who percieves the world as having a God will express their goals and wishes as prayers. A person who percieves the world as NOT having a God will express their prayers as wishes and goals.


There's more, but I can't really think of anything else right now. Oh yeah, sorry for the horrible writing style/quality. I have all of these things I want to say, but they end up sounding really awkward by the time I actually type them. Oh well.

Thoughts?


An eternity of THIS before your eyes...