My Outlook Nature vs. Nurture

Sigmund Freud’s Weltanschauung, which is, essentially, the intellectual construction that is the foundation for how one solves problems of existence. Everything we are interested in has a place and leaves no questions related left open or unanswered. Freud believes religion was only formed to give people wishful thinking.

I am going to attempt to give you a glimpse into my world view as an existentialist. My worldview reflects who I am and how I view and understand the world. The meaning of life is an infinite question and can be unique to every being.

For more than half of my life I have associated myself as an atheist. After doing the flow chart several times, I continued to end at existentialist. This is not something that I have ever considered myself to be, but the more I thought about it, maybe that chart is truthful. The beauty of existentialism is that there is no essential purpose to life. The point to life is to live.

Life is not yours to accept, but rather yours to experience.

Where did I get these ideas? This is an overwhelming question for me. When I was younger, to an extent, I blindly believed what was taught by my family and educators. Looking back, I believe one of the things that I always believed to be a myth, was God, although at times I did question it because it was forced on me. Religion is something I may ponder for the rest of my life.

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I have a lot of living left to do and who knows, I could change my mind before it is all said and done.

It was not until my late 20’s that I began to express individuality and question my world views. I reflected on “why do people believe in God?” and why did I believe God to be a myth. My world view has been shaped by many different influences and experiences. I believe that that geographic area where you were raised has a lot to do with one’s beliefs, but I seemed to not believe in the norm that comes with living in the Bible Belt region of the United States. Religion plays a strong role in society and politics in the Bible Belt.

Nature vs. Nurture

Individuals can accumulate thousands of beliefs throughout their lifetime. From the things that other people say to us, to the things we read, the news, or any other outside influences can affect what we believe in. Everyone has different beliefs and that is what makes this life so unique. Life would be boring without other views and I believe it is key to understand other perspectives. In my view, we are all trying to understand life and one’s beliefs are their way to attempt an explanation.

I have never looked to religion for answers and I have experienced many different religions throughout my lifetime; Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, evangelical Christian, and more I am sure. My family was never religious when I was a young child. I attended an Episcopal pre-school then went on to Catholic school for all my elementary schooling. I do not remember much of my pre-school experiences, but I recall spending several days a week sitting through mass at the Catholic school I attended. My family was not Catholic, so I was not allowed to participate in communion or other “activities” that are included during mass, I just sat and observed. I can If my calculations are right, I sat through and observed roughly 720+ masses in my time at Catholic school. I can remember from a young age not believing in god. As I observed I can remember thinking it was all a myth.

On the weekends we would travel to my grandparent’s house in eastern Kentucky. My grandparents attended a southern Baptist church in the middle of nowhere, the same church my dad was raised in.

As a family we never talked about religion, maybe this is another reason I always thought it was a myth. It was not until my parents divorced that my dad started going to church actively, aside from the weekend trips to my grandparent’s house. At the time of the divorce, I was twelve years old. He would drag me along with him every Sunday and Wednesday. I dreaded those days. Sitting through Sunday school, church service, and forced youth group multiple times a week was miserable for me. Forcing God on me just pushed me even further away, but I decided it was smarter to be silent on my views to avoid offending others. I did not understand how someone could so easily, without question, give their life to something that is openly hypocritical and notorious for cheery picking passages to justify behavior.

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I have two children of my own now and I want them to form their own opinions. I want to raise my children in a secular household for the freedom to explore different beliefs. I firmly believe that religion can be a very positive thing in someone’s life, but I also believe it can be dangerous. It becomes dangerous when you think it gives one the right to influence other people and their lives. If in fact there is a creator, I believe it is naïve of us to pretend like we would be able to understand it in the slightest. We must accept the fact that we are never going to know what is out there.