Personal Philosophy - Pseudo-Intelligent Discussion and Debate

[oldgentlovecraft]

One thing that I enjoy about the members of the board is that we definitely hit a wide range of personalities and beliefs.  It is only a matter of time before a thread turns into a heated argument stemming from our diversity.  I'm offering a thread to let it all out.  Let's talk about what you believe and why.  I don't care if your philosophy comes from religious doctrine or THC induced bliss.  Let's have a somewhat intelligent (someone will come on here and damn us to Hell, talk about butt sex, or start a name calling war) about personal philosophy.

I tend to take from several different perspectives, as I think we all should.  First and foremost I have a strong foothold in philosophical Satanism.  I believe that we are in charge of our own lives and that we alone have the power to reach our highest potential.  That being said, I do have a heart and often feel as though I straddle the line between the self centered views of Satanism and the wholly altruistic drive of Humanism.  To me they are the opposite sides of the same flipped coin.  Both revere knowledge, and the pursuit of it, as motivators in life.  Depending on the day, on whether or not I'm in a Jekyll or Hyde kind of mood, decides which side of the coin lands face up in my mind.

Also, I can see Objectivism's similarities to Satanism and think that, due to the nature of our society, the hard working individual is a hero and that striving to perfect one's own life is key to happiness.  However, I do not agree with Objectivism's socialist implications and therefore do not claim to follow or support the philosophy.  Another idea that intrigues me is that of Cosmicism: the thought that in the greater scheme of things we are absolutely insignificant and will simply fade away as species will do.  For me, the closest thing to a deity that I can call my own is the universe.  It is both beautiful an chaotic and its predictable spontaneity rules us all.  I keep one foot planted in darkness, to keep aware of the tragic nature of life, and another in sunshine, because life is what you make of it and happiness is always possible for anyone.  Most of the time I'm the personification of the themes in I Heart Huckabees.

Please, let's open the discussion. 

[4th Eye]

Very well said and there's a lot of similarities to my view on life. I support no religion or 'ism' completely but I tend to gather knowledge from what I see good and fitting. There are some things in satanism I see in my thoughts too but some things just don't fit in my head. I think satanism is kind of more extreme mix of hedonism and individualism and those are thoughts that are in everyone's mind more or less. It's probably against human nature to be truly altruistic. Especially in these times of shit happening worldwide, a heavily altruistic and emphatizing person would probably wear oneself out. I think at least I am running out of empathy because I just can't have time for everything and I'm becoming somewhat numb. I probably fail to care that much anymore until something happens to me or people I care about. Maybe it's egoistic then.

I don't quite get the zealous views on some certain religion or idea and being so stubborn to not accept anything out of boundaries. I don't blame anyone for having strong opinions but not even having little space for other thoughts is more like stupidity. That "one foot in darkness and another in sunshine" was well said. It's good to see both sides of the coin because there's no good without something bad and people should be conscious of all possibilities.

Ok, that's covered now....is it time to turn this to a thread of butt sex?

[oldgentlovecraft]

Lol no butt sex. 

I think it's hard to stay empathetic when we truly need to be due to all of the sensationalized bullshit on television and in the news.  Half of our television shows are beefed up sob stories and the only things aired on the news (not considering the recent political maelstrom)deal with tragedy.  We love drama. 

And religious zealots make my head hurt.  I think the word "faith", that imaginary, reinforced steel wall of ignorance (for the zealots, fundys, and brainwashed cultists), really means the same thing as personal philosophy.  Instead of learning as they go there are books and doctrines already available to follow.  People that feel strong in their religious convictions without that level of fanaticism are usual comfortable and open minded enough to question their own beliefs and listen to those of others.

I read an awesome article the other day.  Pop! Magic by Grant Morrison from the Book of Lies: The Disinformaiton Guide to Magick and the Occult.  Here's an excerpt or two concerning our inability to understand existence:

"Choronzon, we are told, is the all-devouring guardian of "the Abyss" (The Abyss being a suitably dramatic and evocative term for an experiential "gap" in human consciousness).  The term can be applied to that state of mind during which Individual Egoic Self-consciousness begins to cannibalize itself rather than confront the usually frightening fact that Personality is not "real" in the existential sense and is simply a behavioral strategy."

It makes sense to me.  Once we try to go beyond the concrete world, in our minds, the flood of unanswered questions is hard to control without going a little crazy and so we grasp onto things that fill that gap, such as religion.

[lostpilot]

I like the way you describe your ways of understanding, perceiving reality and it's mechanisms.

I do not like to use terms or phylosophic movements to describe what my Personal Philosophy is.. maybe this is because I am, in my general nature, very dual.. even though I quite do not believe Astrology (in a way of everyday 'if you're Pisces you'll meet your love forever today at 6:15 AM' crap) in predicting, I believe, that time when you were born (and the fact that time was generally invented by a human being does not fit here - it was invented due to stellar systems and their movement in the sky) may turn you into one or another being. And I am a Gemini, which, once again, emphasises my duality - and my stance in beliefs is very dual as well.

On the one hand, I absolutely believe in human beings and their possibilities to evolve, of course not with the destructive, chaotic and deconstructive society that we are locked in nowadays, but in the sense of self-exploration throughout whatever means of exploring - religion, actions, meditating, drugs, music. And I do believe that we are able to become whatever we want, to face absolutely different living conditions, surroundings, etc. We are capable of more than we can think about, the only problem, is that these days our judgement and will to change and progress is clouded by the illusion of safety and comfort. Society builds us the way it wants us to be, we're just products of other people. And I myself am trying to find deeper meanings in every day monotony, cause simple life cannot make me happy, I need more. I am the dreamer, the thinker type, and I need to find what's lying beneath.

And on the other hand.. I quite believe in Cosmicism, as oldgent called it. As I stated in some other topics in SL, I believe in a certain amount of 'power', 'energy', 'cosmo', call it what you want, and that we are formed (say, in a way of Big Bang, exploding, and then in thousands of thousands of thousands of years getting back to one small dot in the universe) of this material, and I believe in alternate realities - which through the same energy amounts but different distribution is formed in a completely different and misundestandable way. Moreover, I think we can communicate these worlds, throughout different ways of meditation etc, while getting back into the stream - the power that goes (well, as I believe..) towards the center of the universe, back into the beginning. There is no time, actually, there is no space either. Just energy, surrounding us, and manifesting in many different ways. Well, I slipped too far to metaphysics..

On the third hand, and yes, I have one of those, I am a complete Existentialist.
If you do not know what this means.. well, google it, lol.

Just basic of my thoughts.. and of course these few ways of my understanding are not the only ones.. I believe in many things, when I am in my head.

[4th Eye]

Once we try to go beyond the concrete world, in our minds, the flood of unanswered questions is hard to control without going a little crazy and so we grasp onto things that fill that gap, such as religion.

Yeah, it's probably easier to follow thougths made by others. I've tried to think beyond the visible but came to no conclusion. Easier choice would've been believing in creationism and that God is the answer to every mystery we experience but to me it's hard to accept. So I'm left with several questions about for example the beginning of the world and even our own existence. All options seem impossible and uncomprehendable and result in myself and environment around me being an impossibility. But if I think and sense, maybe therefore I am. Or not. I don't know. Actually my conclusion is that I shouldn't delve too deep into the questions of existence. But since, in my case, no religion or philosophy fills that gap, I've stopped, or at least reduced thinking these things. Just gives me a headache.

Yay, Friends is on tv, no intelligent thoughts involved!

[oldgentlovecraft]

I like the way you describe your ways of understanding, perceiving reality and it's mechanisms.

I do not like to use terms or phylosophic movements to describe what my Personal Philosophy is.. maybe this is because I am, in my general nature, very dual.. even though I quite do not believe Astrology (in a way of everyday 'if you're Pisces you'll meet your love forever today at 6:15 AM' crap) in predicting, I believe, that time when you were born (and the fact that time was generally invented by a human being does not fit here - it was invented due to stellar systems and their movement in the sky) may turn you into one or another being. And I am a Gemini, which, once again, emphasises my duality - and my stance in beliefs is very dual as well.

On the one hand, I absolutely believe in human beings and their possibilities to evolve, of course not with the destructive, chaotic and deconstructive society that we are locked in nowadays, but in the sense of self-exploration throughout whatever means of exploring - religion, actions, meditating, drugs, music. And I do believe that we are able to become whatever we want, to face absolutely different living conditions, surroundings, etc. We are capable of more than we can think about, the only problem, is that these days our judgement and will to change and progress is clouded by the illusion of safety and comfort. Society builds us the way it wants us to be, we're just products of other people. And I myself am trying to find deeper meanings in every day monotony, cause simple life cannot make me happy, I need more. I am the dreamer, the thinker type, and I need to find what's lying beneath.

And on the other hand.. I quite believe in Cosmicism, as oldgent called it. As I stated in some other topics in SL, I believe in a certain amount of 'power', 'energy', 'cosmo', call it what you want, and that we are formed (say, in a way of Big Bang, exploding, and then in thousands of thousands of thousands of years getting back to one small dot in the universe) of this material, and I believe in alternate realities - which through the same energy amounts but different distribution is formed in a completely different and misundestandable way. Moreover, I think we can communicate these worlds, throughout different ways of meditation etc, while getting back into the stream - the power that goes (well, as I believe..) towards the center of the universe, back into the beginning. There is no time, actually, there is no space either. Just energy, surrounding us, and manifesting in many different ways. Well, I slipped too far to metaphysics..

On the third hand, and yes, I have one of those, I am a complete Existentialist.
If you do not know what this means.. well, google it, lol.

Just basic of my thoughts.. and of course these few ways of my understanding are not the only ones.. I believe in many things, when I am in my head.

Yeah, I don't normally claim much as far as actual philosophies are concerned but I'm the kind of person who learns about something and tries to find out everything about it.  So, named philosophies help explain my own beliefs.  My beliefs and thoughts were more Satanist before I even heard of the term, so it fit.

Once we try to go beyond the concrete world, in our minds, the flood of unanswered questions is hard to control without going a little crazy and so we grasp onto things that fill that gap, such as religion.

Yeah, it's probably easier to follow thougths made by others. I've tried to think beyond the visible but came to no conclusion. Easier choice would've been believing in creationism and that God is the answer to every mystery we experience but to me it's hard to accept. So I'm left with several questions about for example the beginning of the world and even our own existence. All options seem impossible and uncomprehendable and result in myself and environment around me being an impossibility. But if I think and sense, maybe therefore I am. Or not. I don't know. Actually my conclusion is that I shouldn't delve too deep into the questions of existence. But since, in my case, no religion or philosophy fills that gap, I've stopped, or at least reduced thinking these things. Just gives me a headache.

Yay, Friends is on tv, no intelligent thoughts involved!

Sometimes it is better just to live than to wonder why we live.  On the other hand, I question everything and seek out answers to whatever I can.