Hey everyone this article will be a little off the standard I seem to be using and talk about a clash all of us have to deal with in our life. I am talking about the clash between Happiness and Truth.
Throughout my life I have been highly skeptical of everything I am told that tends to be in any way superstition, such as religion, luck, and now karma. I was born in the politically far right Alabama. I have had to struggle to develop my own opinion of things. For instance you could say I was a closet case liberal atheist for nineteen years. (I am nineteen now.) Until a few months ago I had no real name to give my opinions no label. Before then, I would have classified myself as an agnostic republican. This was before when I couldn’t really verbalize my political beliefs. Now it seems everyone is born an atheist, raised Christian, then born again atheist.
I like to ask friends what it is exactly they believe in and the more educated the more inquisitive the individual the harder it is for them to conform to the natural or what use to be natural ideologies. I doubt I could walk into an American senior classroom today and ask is anyone one hundred percent certain there is a god, he’s the Christian one and not Thor, Allah, or Zeus, and you are republican. It seemed more like what is everyone else, where is the group at. I don’t want to be left out from the norm. They never took the issues and said “Well I think that there is nothing wrong with stem cell research” and realize they aren’t republican. They never look at the stories in the bible or the sheer number of religions and develop the opinion well “I cannot prove there is no god but I would say the probability is between zero and one.” So it seems more like in the absence of an opinion it is easier to just go with the group or family.
You should do this, take the list of issues. Pick out which stance you agree with. Tally it all up with Republican on the right and liberal on the left and moderate the middle and see which one has the most issues and that tends to be what you really are. You would be shocked or I should say you might be shocked, of what you really are. Not to mention the question is there a god? You should really research this. Watch Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennet, and Sam Harris. Then watch and read some of the mythologies of the other cultures and decide for yourself with a non-bias approach what you really are. I was literally shocked at myself what I really am.
One thing you should know is that when you are choosing between well should I just settle for the “Ignorance is bliss” and be happy where I am, or should I really just push for the truth. Should you reach deep into the depths of your personality to bring up what makes you who you are. When I discovered the size of the universe, how insignificant I was, at first of course I was sad. Then I finally was happy with that. I say this thinking of the Christian argument that well look how depressing non religion is. Most respond that we don’t use that in our decisions which one I am happy with.
If you don’t believe me, that the less questions people ask the more they just conform to the group there in, just look at the people around you ask them what they are and decide for yourself. I would actually prefer you to question everything I say.
I realize this week’s article is only a page. That’s because I am doing a two part of this, expect another one on Wednesday. I am going to be gone all weekend visiting a college.
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