Welcome and enter
You know –it sounds as though like a show off of me if I were to start with praising God for all the blessings He has given me. In fact, I want to do that –and therefore; all praises unto God for all the love and mercy He has bestowed upon me; glory is unto His Holy Name. At the same time, I seek refuge in Him should my heart be inclined towards desires moreover in this case such as egotism and arrogance. I seek His protection from the accursed devil.
It is probably normal for Muslims to begin anything with a prayer to the Lord of the worlds. Yet at the same time, it is undeniable for those who have faith in God that we should be thankful to Him and seek His protection so that we are not blinded away from the truth; it does not matter even if you belong to other faiths. So long as you believe in God, I suppose you may want to give praises to Him for all the good and bad tidings.
The abovementioned of probably a short prayer is important because what I am about to share is with regards to my experience –and I hope you too pray for my well-being in this world and the next. Everyone wants to be good but we are at times blinded by things around us.
I am a student of philosophy. However, philosophy isn’t the cause to my curiosity about myself i.e. who I am, what is the purpose of my existence and all sorts of questions which have been raised throughout the history of mankind. I was only exposed to philosophy at the start of my second semester of my final year in Republic Polytechnic when I took a module named Reasoning through the Ages. The importance of that module, if I remember correctly, was/is to develop a critical thinking within ourselves. Still, I took this opportunity as part of my soul-searching.
However, it began a way long before that. It all started halfway in my first year of my secondary school, thanks to this anime called Digimon where in one season a villain felt a void in his heart and wondered why he was in the world. I know how childish and silly it seems to be influenced by a cartoon but we cannot deny that there are sublime messages within such platforms of plots.
Of course over the years, I took my religion as an answer to the simple question as what I am in this world or what is the purpose of my existence.
Reality struck me harder as I grew older. Sometimes, I refused to ponder more about this, using religion to convince myself. Moreover, some of these issues could even be taboo to be discussed within the perception of the religion itself. Of course, I do not say I am the only one, for there could be many others coming from all sorts of backgrounds and faiths. Thus, Islam isn’t the only religion. But yet again, it is not necessarily the religions to be at fault. Rather, this problem arises usually by the way how we are been brought up i.e. the people we mix with along with the social influence. Judging by what I have said, probably you could say I was sort of one of the prisoners in the allegory of Plato’s cave.
Yet I wouldn’t say that I have freed myself –I have yet to do so! It is like I am being chased by other released prisoners who probably find it difficult to be in my shoes, refuting me using theories. Surprisingly, I asked a friend of the same faith as me if he would persecute me should I apostate. I am not giving a bad light to my own faith because I do not understand it all by myself but what has been fed to me all these years.
I might probably have mentioned in one of my previous entries that I began to doubt about my faith when I stumbled upon some videos that claimed of people (supposedly from my own faith) having divine experiences such as visions.
Since then, my scepticism grew and needless to say, I became furious at times. But that is not what to be discussed. Besides, I believe I have already talked on that.
Gradually, I began not only to doubt my faith but nearly everything about myself. Like everything else, there are pros and cons to this experience of my life. The cons are as simple as having nearly nothing to hold onto because of doubts. Yet, the pros are as simple as the beginning to appreciate life and learning how it is like to face the world, to face the fact you do exist.
I stared at my hands and was awed with myself. I could stand with my legs. I could see. I could feel, just like everybody else.
I was curious.
I wanted meaning in my life and I still do. I cannot afford to live with an empty purpose of existence. Back then, I was not exposed to philosophy. In fact, I knew entirely nothing of it until I sat for the module Reasoning through the Ages. It is since then I began to understand fully that some of the questions we asked within ourselves had long been raised even centuries or millenniums ago. Read about Plato. Read about Socrates to the modern day philosophers such as Rene Descartes and Immanuel Kant. Although Sigmund Freud was a founding father of psychoanalysis, he was probably regarded as a philosopher (since I caught his name in a book regarding philosophy). It sounds crazy but the things discussed in philosophy are nearly regarding anything under the sun –and even the question of the universe can be a discussion.
You know –people curious about science probably seek knowledge regarding something small in something big e.g. cells in the body. Meanwhile, people curious about philosophy probably ask questions regarding something big in something small. What I am saying is; they could raise questions such as if we ever know anything. They could even be asking if what we perceive now as real –you’d understand better if you were to peep into Descartes’ Meditations. You’d probably be surprised. Thus as you can see, philosophy involves even simple questions in which we take for granted such as have been living all these years in relying only on our five senses without questioning if what we see, taste, touch, smell or hear is ever real. As Morpheus said in film The Matrix, if that is how we define what real is, then we are saying real is something interpreted by electric signals in our brain.
At first, it seems crazy to even ponder what is been said. But to some of us, it cannot help. To some of us, we ask ourselves; what is ethic? What is more, we do ask; what is knowledge? What is science? Does God exist? And the list goes on and on that we call them “fundamental questions” –but it cannot be helped if these questions are raised by sincere individuals. Are we supposed to brush these aside without then understanding what these people are going through?
If you choose to reject one’s scepticism or doubt, by all means please provide yourself a convincing answer after contemplation instead of putting it at the back of your mind.
You know –it sounds as though like a show off of me if I were to start with praising God for all the blessings He has given me. In fact, I want to do that –and therefore; all praises unto God for all the love and mercy He has bestowed upon me; glory is unto His Holy Name. At the same time, I seek refuge in Him should my heart be inclined towards desires moreover in this case such as egotism and arrogance. I seek His protection from the accursed devil.
It is probably normal for Muslims to begin anything with a prayer to the Lord of the worlds. Yet at the same time, it is undeniable for those who have faith in God that we should be thankful to Him and seek His protection so that we are not blinded away from the truth; it does not matter even if you belong to other faiths. So long as you believe in God, I suppose you may want to give praises to Him for all the good and bad tidings.
The abovementioned of probably a short prayer is important because what I am about to share is with regards to my experience –and I hope you too pray for my well-being in this world and the next. Everyone wants to be good but we are at times blinded by things around us.
I am a student of philosophy. However, philosophy isn’t the cause to my curiosity about myself i.e. who I am, what is the purpose of my existence and all sorts of questions which have been raised throughout the history of mankind. I was only exposed to philosophy at the start of my second semester of my final year in Republic Polytechnic when I took a module named Reasoning through the Ages. The importance of that module, if I remember correctly, was/is to develop a critical thinking within ourselves. Still, I took this opportunity as part of my soul-searching.
However, it began a way long before that. It all started halfway in my first year of my secondary school, thanks to this anime called Digimon where in one season a villain felt a void in his heart and wondered why he was in the world. I know how childish and silly it seems to be influenced by a cartoon but we cannot deny that there are sublime messages within such platforms of plots.
Of course over the years, I took my religion as an answer to the simple question as what I am in this world or what is the purpose of my existence.
Reality struck me harder as I grew older. Sometimes, I refused to ponder more about this, using religion to convince myself. Moreover, some of these issues could even be taboo to be discussed within the perception of the religion itself. Of course, I do not say I am the only one, for there could be many others coming from all sorts of backgrounds and faiths. Thus, Islam isn’t the only religion. But yet again, it is not necessarily the religions to be at fault. Rather, this problem arises usually by the way how we are been brought up i.e. the people we mix with along with the social influence. Judging by what I have said, probably you could say I was sort of one of the prisoners in the allegory of Plato’s cave.
Yet I wouldn’t say that I have freed myself –I have yet to do so! It is like I am being chased by other released prisoners who probably find it difficult to be in my shoes, refuting me using theories. Surprisingly, I asked a friend of the same faith as me if he would persecute me should I apostate. I am not giving a bad light to my own faith because I do not understand it all by myself but what has been fed to me all these years.
I might probably have mentioned in one of my previous entries that I began to doubt about my faith when I stumbled upon some videos that claimed of people (supposedly from my own faith) having divine experiences such as visions.
Since then, my scepticism grew and needless to say, I became furious at times. But that is not what to be discussed. Besides, I believe I have already talked on that.
Gradually, I began not only to doubt my faith but nearly everything about myself. Like everything else, there are pros and cons to this experience of my life. The cons are as simple as having nearly nothing to hold onto because of doubts. Yet, the pros are as simple as the beginning to appreciate life and learning how it is like to face the world, to face the fact you do exist.
I stared at my hands and was awed with myself. I could stand with my legs. I could see. I could feel, just like everybody else.
I was curious.
I wanted meaning in my life and I still do. I cannot afford to live with an empty purpose of existence. Back then, I was not exposed to philosophy. In fact, I knew entirely nothing of it until I sat for the module Reasoning through the Ages. It is since then I began to understand fully that some of the questions we asked within ourselves had long been raised even centuries or millenniums ago. Read about Plato. Read about Socrates to the modern day philosophers such as Rene Descartes and Immanuel Kant. Although Sigmund Freud was a founding father of psychoanalysis, he was probably regarded as a philosopher (since I caught his name in a book regarding philosophy). It sounds crazy but the things discussed in philosophy are nearly regarding anything under the sun –and even the question of the universe can be a discussion.
You know –people curious about science probably seek knowledge regarding something small in something big e.g. cells in the body. Meanwhile, people curious about philosophy probably ask questions regarding something big in something small. What I am saying is; they could raise questions such as if we ever know anything. They could even be asking if what we perceive now as real –you’d understand better if you were to peep into Descartes’ Meditations. You’d probably be surprised. Thus as you can see, philosophy involves even simple questions in which we take for granted such as have been living all these years in relying only on our five senses without questioning if what we see, taste, touch, smell or hear is ever real. As Morpheus said in film The Matrix, if that is how we define what real is, then we are saying real is something interpreted by electric signals in our brain.
At first, it seems crazy to even ponder what is been said. But to some of us, it cannot help. To some of us, we ask ourselves; what is ethic? What is more, we do ask; what is knowledge? What is science? Does God exist? And the list goes on and on that we call them “fundamental questions” –but it cannot be helped if these questions are raised by sincere individuals. Are we supposed to brush these aside without then understanding what these people are going through?
If you choose to reject one’s scepticism or doubt, by all means please provide yourself a convincing answer after contemplation instead of putting it at the back of your mind.
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