Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Atheism vs religiousness vs science

I feel as though lately, there has been a crossroad in my life that I have seen many times. I also feel as though some people have an idea that may be wrong both about me and some groups of people in general. This crossroad is that of atheism, science, and religiousness. What do I belief is true and why?

Well from past posts and from knowing me in person, like many of you do, you would probably guess that I am an atheist who doesn't think there is a god and doesn't believe in anything but science. I will respond by saying, somewhat.

First off, I want to start by saying atheism is a very strong and decisive word that describes a small group of people. It is the belief in nothing or the lack of beliefs at all. This is a very strong and honestly, to me, meaningless (dis)belief system. It makes life so much more monotonous and pointless. I understand skepticism and debatable ideas, but I can't say that I believe in nothing. I simply don't know anything. In my mind, belief and knowledge are two separate things.

This brings me to science. Yes I am a strongly scientific person. I am a post-Scientific Revolution and post-Enlightenment thinker. I belief in reason and understanding the world around us. That is who I have decided to me. This does not mean however that I don't believe or I don't leave room for belief in other things. There very well be a god or anything other being out there controlling our actions and making me write this post right now. Who can ever really know?

This leads into the concept of religion. I don't really have a set religion and I am happy about that. I am not being forced to close my mind to things that may or may not be true. I am thinking on my own and not worrying about the problems that some most likely, but still possibly, existent god may have with it. This gives me a better chance of seeing things for what they are and not what someone tells me that someone else said that god said. I do understand that religion is a safe haven for some people. It does help them understand their life and explain some things for them. I completely understand that, and I understand that because that is exactly what science is for me. Science is in part my religion. It is pretty much my belief system. I say "in part" and "pretty much" because there are some people who take this too strongly just as some religion fanatics take religion too strongly.

There are people in this world that are too close minded and myopic. They can't see something that is right in front of their faces. They are blindly faithful to things that are obviously not possible or true to others. This goes for people of religion and people of science and people of neither. This goes for me and you and everyone you and I know. Everyone on this earth is myopic to their own degree. Now the only resolution for this is looking at someone else and attempting to understand what they believe and why they believe it. As I mentioned before though, there are people who are too close minded. These are the people who don't believe anything unless it is purely _________________ (fill in the blank with whatever belief system you wish). There are people that believe everything in the book (quran, bible, torah, brief history of time) is true no matter what. And to be honest, none of them are completely 100% true. They are all beliefs. They are all some stuff people wrote down at some point and people are fallible as we all know.

So without going too much further, moral of the story: don't believe everything you see, try to understand other people's beliefs, don't be close minded, and figure out what you really want to believe. I won't even answer the original questions because they were intended for the reader, not me. Despite my biased writing, what do you believe? And why? Hope these at least get you thinking. That is all I ask.

Monday, October 11, 2010

ESP and regrets

First post in awhile. Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to finish my thoughts.

Last night (10/9/10) I got to go out with my former roommate and his girlfriend, who is also a good friend of mine, and a group of their friends. It was a good time at Eastern State Penitentiary and we then sat around and talked afterward. I was tired and mostly just listened to the conversations that happened (not that I am usually any different). I did input my thoughts on a few things that I was asked about but mostly sat silently trying not to fall into a deep sleep. I simply sat and observed. And tonight I am realizing just how out of place I really was.

I was with a group of people who have been friends for awhile. They all had their own memories and similar interests and inside jokes and other stuff like that. I am just tonight realizing that not only did I not fit in the group, but I never have fit into any kind of group like that. I never had a group of friends that had a bunch of stories and jokes and other little common interests. I have never once experienced this type of thing. Well I suppose since college started these types of bonds have started to form, but it just doesn't feel like the same thing.

I was the person when I was younger, and even until now, that would always prefer to be with one friend then any group of friends. I would rather focus all my efforts on one person than spread them amongst a large number of people. And tonight I have come to the idea that maybe it was the wrong path to choose.

Well it's now over a week later (10/18/10) and I guess I will continue from where I left off.

As I said, before college I never had the type of bonds that these friends had. And at this point in time I am not sure whether that was the correct choice for me. I mean I am who I am and I will always regret things I didn't do just because I am that person. However, I think I am disadvantaged in social environments because of these past choices.

When I was in high school, the only real conversation topic I talked about was school. "Hey Ashley, how did you feel about that math test?" or "Alex, did you finish your essay for English?". That is the only conversation I ever really had during the school day and once the school day ended, I dropped off the face of the earth.

For this reason, I never knew about any high school drama or anything like that, which is now in college a really common theme, and I never have good input.

I really don't know what else I can really talk about with regards to this topic. I am not in the same mood as I was last Sunday. I suppose I will just stop here. I hope to post something else later today or tomorrow. I'll see what I feel like then.