A Little Bit About What's Happening In My Brain Tonight.

It's now 10:39 PM, and this posting has sat here blank for the last four hours and twelve minutes. It's one of those nights where I've chosen not to follow on with the Perry Pooter story, as it appears very few people are active on the blogsphere this weekend, and I thought I'd write something else up instead for people to read. Then, I started to read Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis', and got half way through and got bored, and decided to go read up a little about existentialists like Sartre and that, then thought, why don't I go back to doing my Arts Degree (where I was hoping to study some in depth Philosophy and stuff), and then I started thinking about some other stuff ... mainly the 'philosophy in religion' thing versus the 'philosophy versus religion' thing. Lets face it, it's sometimes interesting to see how some philosophers [for example Nietzsche], thought that philosophy woul do away with religion, while others [for example Kierkegaard], used philosophy as an augmentation to religion. As I sat thinking through this all, I realised that about 99% of all my deep thoughts never get put down on paper (let alone in type). I know some people will jump for joy, as it means I won't be melting their brain with something they can't be bothered trying to get their heads around. I always start to get sort of philisophical when I start pondering life. After all, philosophy (in it's true meaning) is all about improving peoples lives. [As opposed to the more loose meanings people give to things]. A lot of people get confused between 'wisdom literature' and 'philosophy' as well. Too many get caught up in the 'rules' as well. I think I could safely say that philosophers like Senneca believed we should think our way through our problems. There wasn't so many hard and fast rules, as much as there was an idea of using logic to arrive at the right place. Unfortunately, some people find it very difficult to think logically. Give them a simple logic problem, say a 'who dunnit' mystery, and they are likely to arrive at the wrong conclusion. Due to this, people obviously realised that not everyone was capable of using logic to solve their problems. I guess in a way this is where philosophy had a small falling down. Of course, the existentialists actually embraced this problem. They concluded that life was so rich and complex, that no one could actually sit down and successfully think their way through every problem successfully, no matter how logical or intelligent they were. Let's call it, part of the human condition, for want of a better term at the moment. Of course, the inability to think our way through every situation was a problem, but the existentialists also thought that for every decision there were negative consequences. So, even making the 'right choice' would lead to some form of suffering. So, where do we go from there? We can't remove the uncertainty of life (not even if we lock ourselves away in a cave somewhere, as the cave might collapse on us), and we can't ignore the repercussions of uncertainty, as that would lead to a lack of planning, and as such disasters. Of course, the ANTI-RELIGIONISTS tried to remove the religious aspects from their lives (and in some cases tried to remove it from others). It's not that they denied faith, because after all, even a belief in anything non-religious often requires some faith. [Like, when you have faith your car brakes will work. Yeah, sure, they may not work, but you wouldn't have got into the car without soem faith that they would work]. The RELIGIONISTS of course try to keep aspects of religion within their framework of philosophy. In fact, some religions are very ,much dependant on their philosophical beginnings. At the end of the day however, both religion and philosophy often try to answer the questions of 'why are we alive'? or 'What is my reason for being?' I used the word 'often' in the last sentence, as it isn't always the way though. Some religions and philosophies come to the conclusion that there isn't any hard or fast reason to our existence. The very question of 'What is my purpose for being on Earth?' is considered moot, or is answered with a resounding, 'How the frig would I know, I'm just your brain!' This then plows us headlong into the proverbial debate about 'free will' and 'predestination', and the other groups who believe in both. I've previously discussed a proof for both that I often use, and you can go digging through my archives for it. :-) I'm not about to embark on that discussion. However, getting back to the question of 'What is my purpose on earth?' in relation to the free-will, pre-destination thing, we can conclude a few things. Some, including some Athiests, have a very distinct belief that their life has a higher purpose than just being here on the planet using valuable oxygen that the rest of the animals could be breathing. In the case of the theists of that peruasion, they will however find that purpose related in the diety or dieties of their particular faith. The other group, who answer the question with a 'there is no reason for us being here, we really are using up valuable oxygen,' then fall into two distinct groups. [Might be more, but let me concentrate on these two]. First, the existentialists, who believe that WE are 100% in charge of giving our lives meaning. The other group are basically the Nihilists, for whom life will never ever have any meaning, and you can't even create one regardless of how hard you try. In a way, both of these groups are either side of the same coin. The coin being the 'there is no reason for us to be here.' In one case, the Existentialists choose a more pleasant path, where one can make meaning for themselves, while the Nihilist chooses a path which is darker and basically believes their is no morality for people to be accountable to. The Nihilist basically says, 'There is no meaning, and never will be any meaning to life, so why bother trying to give yourself one?' The existentialist on the other hand says,' There is no meaning for life, BUT you can choose your path in life and can give it meaning. You can be the hero of your life and can make something of it, whether it is to be famous or infamous will come down to the individual.' It's now 11:20 PM. I hope I haven't babbled on too much for the last forty minutes, and I hope that stream of words is helpful to someone somewhere in life. :-)