nolan_void

One the most common things that one of my philosophy professors discusses is the conflicting set of commitments that people of Western culture hold about themselves. On one hand we think of ourselves on a humanistic level, in which we have free will and the ability to reason; feelings and a whole other manner of abstract and intangible things factor into the reasoning we use in this manner of viewing ourselves. Then on the other hand we view ourselves through a scientific lens (no pun intended) in which the human form, and every form for that matter, is assumed to be a purely physical object reacting to forces and in turn causing reactions in other forces (determinism is really hard to argue against). Thinking one way seems to invalidate thinking the other way, yet our schizophrenic culture still seems to hold both views as viable to some extent.

In a similar manner, I find myself in the same sort of philosophical predicament. Some days I consider myself a Buddhist, and other days I couldn't be more of a Satanist. As far as I know, there are no two religions (which are arguably philosophies more than they are religions) that conflict more than these, but I still feel a resonation of agreement when I contemplate either of their tenets. Pondering the conflicts and the shortcomings of either one also leaves me feeling as if I am chasing my tail, and it usually starts to seem as if I cannot reconcile them with each other, but the commitments to both still remain. Perhaps it is because dualism is so ingrained to people raised in the West from the time that we are born that our minds have started to take on a similar schizophrenic, jekyll/hyde framework.

Conclusion: inconclusive.