What Is Your Personal Philosophy?

How do you live your life? Why do you care about the things you care about? Why do you strive/why should we strive as a species? What's the point of life? How does your religion factor into all of this? Why is it important to have your philosophy? What do you believe in about a pre-life and after-life?

 

-How do you live your life?
I treat others how I would like to be treated. Which is to look for the good, be empathic and understanding, and avoid any physical or emotional hurt (unless in cases of self defense). I am compassionate and a helper and a healer, but I am not selfless. I'm not selfish, but I put myself first often, and I feel I need to for my own self care. I feel as though I should be more charitable. I am witty and at times a smart@$$ to a fault, hurting others' feelings and in turn my own because I don't want to hurt anyone. I have a temper, but generally not with people. I am humble and have no problems apologizing.

Why do you care about the things you care about?
-Do you mean moral values and beliefs or interests hobbies and life passions? I find that all of those things have come in the context of close relationships. My values were internalized at the neurological level by how I was valued by my parents and explicitly taught and modeled. My interests, hobbies, and passions comes from things those closest to me like.

Why do you strive/why should we strive as a species?
-I don't know what this means. Strive for what?

What's the point of life? How does your religion factor into all of this? Why is it important to have your philosophy?
-I don't think there is a point to life in terms of a plan from a conscious being or god. Simply put, as animals, the point to life is to spread our genes. I don't have a religion. The point of my life is to be happy and healthy and to try to make others happy and healthy, starting with those closest to me.

What do you believe in about a pre-life and after-life?
-I don't believe in a pre or post life. i don't believe in a soul and I think consciousness is just one of many very complex software programs running on a very complex computer (the brain). When that hardware becomes damaged, so does the software and when the hardware breaks, goodbye software forever.

 

I live each day. I try not to worry about yesterday or tomorrow.

I try my best to be honest. That's not always a good thing. However, I believe it makes life less complicated.

It's simple, but it allows me to adapt to new challenges while at the same time I don't feel lost.

I care about anything that has an interesting story. Whether that story comes from sports, movies, jokes, real life, etc, good stories interest me.

I don't understand the question.

It's your life. You decide what it means.

I'm not religious.

My philosophy isn't important. What's important is living life to the fullest. How you do it doesn't matter as long as the results are positive.

I'll believe it if I see it.

 

What's the point of living happily? Why does it matter if we kill someone or don't kill someone? Why does it make a difference if we're selfish or not? Why should we strive if there is no after-life?

So do you think we just got here out of chance? No external force needed to create life for any reason? Life just happened for no reason?

 

Why are you so firm in your belief that you aren't willing to change? What about your faith are you so sure about that you won't give it up ever? Do you think that if someone doesn't have the same faith as you, that they can't lead good lives? If you think that they can lead good lives, then why does it make a difference to have your faith or not?

 

I live happily, without killing and try not to be selfish because of my neurobiology, and so does everyone else. During early brain development, my neural pathways were wired in such a way that kindness, empathy, altruism, generosity, care, nurturing, honesty, loyalty, fairness, etc were able to form connections with the reward centers of the brain because i was treated in those ways consistently and predictably. The brain is shaped by the environment and becomes how it is treated. Neurons that fire together-wire together. Our sense of self, what most call the soul, is a reflection of how we were treated early in life. Conversely, if I was treated with coldness, un-soothed, fear, anger, pain, and unpredictability by my attachment figures, there would never be a chance for those experiences to be internalized as rewards/positive experiences. In short, I'm a good person because I am a slave to my neurons. It would make me sick and I'd be ravaged with guilt if I acted opposite to my neurobiology. On the macro level, if many people were selfish and killed, etc, our species would die out pretty quickly.

Yes I think in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, the incomprehensibly unlikely factors aligned for life to exist. No external agent required.

 

You didn't really answer the question. You provide good reasoning for how you learned to do the things you do, but what I'm trying to get at is what's the point? Is it to make life better for the people after you? If that's the point of living happily or altruistically, then will we ever be "truly" happy in this life? Or will it be like a mathematical limit, where all we can do is get closer and closer?

This is reasonable, but I just want to clarify. When I'm talking about life, I'm not talking about life on Earth. I'm talking about the universe as a whole. Was the universe created, or did it already exist? Life on Earth surely is special because of the unlikely factors, but life as a whole is beautiful - the universe is beautiful. So you're saying there is no external agent required to put the universe into motion?

 

There isn't really a point or a "why". The answer to "why" is because I can't help it. maybe you're asking if I have an ultimate goal in the way i live? The answer is not really. I don't want to change the world. i just live day by day and try to make my neural patterns affect the neural patterns of those i come in contact with. Well, maybe there's a tad bit of a plan in my worldview. I hope the world become more educated about early brain development and the neuroscience of morality, leading to a radical change in how children are viewed and treated. Then, we'll see a big change in societies.

Quantum mechanics, theoretical physics and cosmology go way over my head. Supposedly, the universe is in fact finite. When matter and energy came into existence, so did time...(???) IDK dude. Adding an external agent only complicates things, IMO. It's a cop-out to a very head-spinning question (origin or time/matter/energy).

 

I personally believe it's within human nature to be happy living in harmony with other human beings. Part of the reason human beings have become the dominate species is our cooperative nature combined with our extremely advanced communication skills. Of course, this natural cooperative nature can be offset or compromised by feelings of fear or intimidation. Unfortunately, I believe some religions emphasize fear too much. Some Christian sects emphasize the idea that we're "born in sin". I've yet to see a newborn baby who looked like a cold blooded killer, save for Stewie Griffin on Family Guy.

When you say "external force", I assume you mean a conscious source. Nature is a powerful force, yet possesses no conscience.

So no, I don't believe life formed from a conscious decision made by a supreme entity.

 

Creating fear and insecurity are some of the most powerful psychological marketing techniques. The fashion, cosmetics and diet industries depend on these techniques and society rightfully criticizes them for it; but we don't criticize religion.

Cosmetics/fashion/diet: "You're too fat. You're too ugly. You have ugly spots and wrinkles. Your eyelashes are too short, etc. Your clothes are ugly. You are not attractive to the opposite sex. You can't be successful in dating or business without our products. You need our products because you are not good enough without us. Look at our perfect and photoshopped models. They are the standard. You may never be as good as them, but we'll get you pretty close. Despite your inadequacies, we are here to help. We'll make everything better, just buy our products."

Some religions: "You are born a sinner. You are but rags. Nothing you could possibly do is good enough to earn god's approval and salvation. You aren't good enough and you know it. You can never be happy without god. Something is missing and you know it. You need god. You feel empty don't you? You feel alone and afraid don't you? You feel unloved don't you? You may think that you're a good person, but without our product (believing in our god) you're doomed to an eternity of torture. Don't worry though. All you have to do is buy our product and you'll be fine."

See the parallel?

 

Absolutely.

Unfortunately, fear mongering is a very effective tool. And it works most effectively on younger people. That's partially why advertisers often want to go after the 18-49 year old crowd, despite the fact that it's the older baby boomers that have most of the disposable income in this country.

 

Are other animals capable of striving for happiness? If so, what does their striving look like?

You are correct when I mean a conscious source.
Are we the only beings in this life with consciousness? If not, what about other animals? Plants? Germs? Atoms? Where do you draw the line for what has consciousness and what doesn't? Are there different levels of consciousness?

 

I have no idea. I have no personal insight into what makes animals happy.

A certain level of consciousness is required for all mortal animals. If we can't be aware of our surroundings, we'll end up dead. We can't acquire food from the sun like a plant or acquire food and shelter from a host like a virus or invasive bacteria. We have to hunt or forage for food and we have to build or establish a place to provide shelter from the elements.

As far as "higher levels of consciousness" goes, it really depends upon intelligence and communication skills. Lifeforms that have higher levels of intelligence plus the communication skills to impart that intelligence to others will be more dominant than other species.

The problem I have with the theory that there is a supreme entity with a conscience is that a supreme entity doesn't need one. Nature can cause hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, floods, etc and suffer no consequences for these actions. A conscience is a necessity for mortal beings. Not supreme immortal entities.

 

Dominance aside, it sounds like you're saying that every life form has consciousness. Correct me if I'm wrong. If that's the case, where do you draw the line for what's a life form?

If atoms in and of themselves are life forms, then aren't they technically conscious when being a hurricane or something? Are there any immortal entities in this world?