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Epistemology

Decent Essays

My Own Epistemology: In the Making

Am I living in an illusion? What will happen to me after I die? Is there really such thing as a God? I have struggled with these three questions throughout my entire life, and I was very intrigued to discover that all of these questions were addressed throughout the many different readings in Libs 201: Exploring the Unknown. Author Chris Frith dissects the idea that the mental world is an illusion created by the brain in his book Making Up The Mind. Antony Flew, a former atheist, argues that there is such thing as a God or an “agent” and backs up his theory using science. Emile Durkheim writes about the foundation of religious thought in primitive people thousands of years ago, and addresses the …show more content…

Whether it is Emile Durkheim discussing the foundation of religious thought in primitive people thousands of years ago, or Michael Shermer writing about how the human brain constructs beliefs and reinforces them as truths, I am constantly absorbing brilliant new ideas and perspectives regarding the foundation of philosophical and religious thought in humans. I have come to the conclusion that my epistemology is still in the making, and my sponge of a brain has not yet absorbed enough experience and knowledge for me to feel confident in my own thoughts and beliefs at this point in my life. I believe that with every new book or article that I read, I feel my mind expanding more and more, and maybe one day I will finally be able to say “There really is a God out there, and I know this because…”. There is also a chance that I’ll discover that I am more like Shermer and I will come to the conclusion that our brain simply creates the idea of a God due to the process of patternicity, the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless data. For now, all I can do is retain as many different concepts and philosophies as I can in order to bring me one step closer to discovering my own

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