It is difficult for anyone to accept that they have been wrong there entire life. And not only they but ancestors, going back a long way have been wrong about specific beliefs. And then there is all the time we spent learning and expanding the details of that wrong belief. That is not to say that some of what we learned was not right and good. But the underlying belief was just wrong. There is/was no god, just nature. God was what we did not understand, an explanation for the unknown. We know more now, but not all. It was nature, all natural events that brought life. The details have not yet been worked out, but there is enough record to see that it occurred naturally.
In the lab,sciences have constructed reproducing, feeding, organism, and then were shut down out of fear that if this got away... It could destroy our life, as we know it. The US produced a modified lyme disease as a biological weapon, and it got out of captivity... likely. So perhaps, exploring the unknown has risks, but so does continuing to believe in religions. In a post at
http://fredjustdoinglife.blogspot.ca/ , I started to explore alternatives. There is much exploring that needs to be done. It may lead nowhere, but does provide a distraction.
What should we believe in modern life? What should the modern philosophy of life look like? Exploring is the only way to generate alternatives. We are not bound by historical views. There are always new and different ways to compare and ratchet toward a better way. Abandoning a fixed belief in a god, or accepting that it need not be true is the first step in enlightenment, what ever that is.
Delusions of what life should be must also be let go of. I do not know. I have reached a time and position in my life that I do not need to spend most of it struggling to survive. I am retired. I have time to explore this nebulous issue. It also relates to overeating in some way, for OA perhaps found a correlation between beliefs overeating. This is not clear by any means, but if overeating is indeed psychological/philosophical there may be a link.
What is the ultimate test? Is there some physical evidence of the existence? That which is common between many of the belief systems may be correct. That which is disputed may not be correct. Doing that which is rational may be the better direction, while concepts like optimization require more data than we have.
Believing that for which there is physical evidence to support the concept is likely the place to start. Evolution, science, even the soft sciences. Start with positive psychology, and go from there. Positive psychology conforms to Stoic thought, and has some evidence, or more correctly, positive test results, suggesting it is a place to start, at least. It starts the cycle, positive attitude, engagement, meaning, and if fate permits, achievement, satisfaction, joy, feeding back into positive attitude.
But what do I know?
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