I've been doing so much damn studying lately and it seems the subject I was least interested in: "metaphysics" has become the most consuming subject to date.
I'm taking 16 pretty tough units this semester and I just got a part-time job; needless to say, I don't have too much extra time to be wandering around like a space cadet wondering if there is a God or not. Herein lies the problem.
I finally am beginning to see how difficult it is take anything seriously without having had answered these metaphysical questions. They seem to be not only the largest questions we have, but the most important questions we have as well. Surely we all can all understand the inherent magnitude behind questions like "Does God exist?", "Does life have meaning or purpose?", and "What happens when we die?" But what is the importance of these questions? Why should we discuss these questions openly rather than keep them bottled up as personal conundrums? I for one always felt it was a good idea to keep the metaphysical as intimate as possible. In other words, nobody needs to know where I stand in regards to God or reality or whatever. After all, shouldn't our belief in God be for us and not for others? Well what I'm beginning to realize is that while the acceptance of God/no God (or any other metaphysic) may be personal for some, the necessity of identifying your own metaphysic is great, as the ability to answer any questions with any degree of certainty in any field or subject seems inescapable the fact that the eventual reduction to or reference of a particular metaphysic will occur. What the hell does that mean? To me it means you can go no further until you figure it out. You have to know what you believe in order to do what you think is right in all situations. Let's use myself as an example; I am likely to pursue ethics beyond my bachelors degree, I find it to be of great value and importance. Well what is ethics? The study of right and wrong is basically what it boils down to. We all live our own lives guided by some sort of ethic. Some believe God is in control and sets the rules for us to follow, others believe there is no God and hence no such rules. Some believe that making calculations based on outcomes will give you the ethical answers, others believe we have an inherent duty simply to do the right thing. So I ask, Can you believe there is no God and still believe there are universal rules to adhere to? If there is no God does anything matter? Is there even such a thing as the right or wrong thing? Belief in a certain metaphysic is where we derive the guiding principles we need to answer the more practical questions. It's difficult to imagine people and consider they live their life by a certain metaphysic; it's a bit interesting to think about what actually is guiding everyone? What do our teachers believe? What does Obame believe? When you walk passed someone on campus are they thinking about "what is" or are they thinking about their grades and their bills?
It's beginning to make more sense now that I need to really develop my own metaphysics. All my questions have been kept to myself up to this point and that is where I believe we come to a stand still. We can only think about things so much, we need to discuss them, we need to hear how we sound saying what we think we believe. I think the ability to discuss rather than think on these issues is what elicits the juciest thinking. Gotta run...
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