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“All knowledge is based on the assumption that the product of our senses is real.”
- Xenocrates
What is knowledge? How do we define what it is that we’ve come to know? How do we express what we think we believe? What makes it valid? On what grounds do we make the separation between what is faith and what is proof? The theory of knowledge underscores all of these questions. However, the unfortunate reality is that knowledge as most people understand it, is nothing more than a cultural approximation of information determined by individual perceptions. Most of what you know has very little useful purpose outside of the environment where you learned it. It is a tragic waste of brain cells, and in worst case scenarios, a potential waste of human life where that information is interpreted differently. Humanity’s hunger for knowledge both creates and decimates human existence - although I’m led to believe it’s more of the latter than the former. The following epiphanies examine the flimsy basis on which we define knowledge. As far as I know, these are all my own original thoughts:
“Anything is justifiable in the name of religion.”
- Xenocrates
Over the last couple of months, my blog entries have focused on the lies most ubiquitously propagated by religion. I’ve sought to explain this phenomenon through analyzing the responses I’ve gotten from many folks - particularly those who’ve responded to me in person. From talking to these people, I’ve established a most discernable pattern: The average person is a linear thinker. They tend to accept most ideas at face value and interpret most problems using the most conspicuous parameters defined by that problem. They assume that the underlying premise is true so long as it appears to make sense - whether or not it actually does. This is why people believe so many of the highly illogical and perhaps even nonsensical things they do - especially as it relates to religion. In this entry, I will discuss some of the core ideas we’ve come to know in religion and how we can use critical thinking to expose the illogical nature of these teachings. You will see that deception is more of a science than an art and you will understand why it is used to snare the minds of the simple minded.
“Most religions are based on the assumption that opinion is the same as fact.”
- Xenocrates
Which is the right religion? Is that even a valid question? When you consider the possible ramifications, the possibilities are staggering. How does someone who feels they need to add some sense of spirituality to their lives even begin to go about narrowing down their choices? We already know why religion exists - or at least, we know what the motivations for the creation of religion are. We covered that in the last post which described the true nature of God. But really, how does one even begin where this is concerned? Before you do that, we need to quickly examine to schools of thought where this is concerned; namely that of Religion and of a Philosophical Way of life. If you think that the two ideas are the same, then you’ve been grossly misinformed:
“The Universe always unfolds exactly as it should.”
- Xenocrates
Have you ever contemplated the existence of a God?
Most people believe in some God they can’t even define. Yet others are willing to believe so blindly that they are easily fooled and led to believe in virtually anything their gullible minds are capable of absorbing. The trouble with belief systems is that they rely on the believer to have faith - which is simultaneously our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. Faith is a form of hope based on unsubstantiated evidence - that’s why it’s not without a sense of deception. As such, any system of belief that requires faith for solubility, is an intrinsically dangerous belief. Because it is through these unprovable systems of belief that peoples have been oppressed and / or slaughtered - all for an idea for which people cannot substantiate.
I do not subscribe to blind faith based religion. In fact, if anything, I subscribe to a sustainable philosophical way of life. When the ideology becomes bogged down with the inexplicable specificity of religion, then it looses its philosophical meaning and becomes more about the rituals than the philosophical ideology. It doesn’t matter what labels people choose to use for religion. At the end of the day, they all boil down to the same thing - worship of the great unknown. Men have always worshipped the unknown. We’ve all been hard wired to subscribe to this idea through some genetic permutation, which no doubt is a part of the grand design. It is that grand design that fascinates me, and which led to my first truly deep philosophical epiphany:
We live in a Mechanised Universe.
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