Life is complex and often confusing. We’re scared little animals with consciousnesses, stranded on a planet floating through empty space, with no means of escape. There seems to be no meaning, rhyme or reason to any of this, so we all try and find our own meaning in the madness. We seek out the patterns, and try to fill our void of understanding with knowledge, philosophies or doctrines like religion. It goes without saying, knowledge is power, however within the hunt for knowledge there is a trap many of us fall into. I like to call this, the trap of philosophical identity.
Once we’ve accumulated an array of ideas that fit neatly together, we often like to group them together into a philosophy or belief system. Some notable examples would be stoicism, solopisism or even buddhism. This is fine for the most part, as it categorises different beliefs and gives us a reference point for various ideas. However, we fall into a trap when we identify ourselves with these philosophies.
People start calling themselves Buddhists, Christians and atheist, amongst other things, to give their beliefs and ideas a sense of identity. An identity, that by it’s very nature is an illusion created by the ego. A false perception of a so called ‘self’ that does not exist. We are nothing more than a collection of cells and brain chemical changes, how can a conditioned object possibly give itself an identity. If you want to gain true knowledge, and form your own truth, then identifying yourself 
with your beliefs is the biggest hindrance in all your intellectual pursuits.
When you identify yourself with your beliefs, then you narrow you thinking to that one specific belief. Anything that goes against this is dismissed, and you gain a sort of confirmation bias against anything that goes against your said belief. Atheists are terrible for this. They are against religion, yet by identifying themselves as an atheist, they have just traded one belief system for another, atheism. There’s no problem believing or disbelieving in a god, but saying your belief is fact and everyone else is stupid, is ludicrous. Identifying yourself with a certain belief system just hinders you from greater understanding, as you will never look at different perspectives and form your OWN opinion. Rather, just the opinions of a philosophy devised by others.
I suggest rather than following any sort of philosophy, we remain neutral and sceptical of all possibilities. Remain open to new opinions rather than staying stuck in you own stubborn beliefs. You will never learn anything if you form your ideology and leave it at that. New knowledge should be open to interpretation, and not just thrown away because it goes against your beliefs, you may be throwing away something valuable.
So, don’t just read the bible and call it day. Don’t read, a science encyclopaedia and leave it at that. Research every angle of every argument and remain open to change. Place ideas and opinions in different contexts, and accept that you are not your beliefs, rather an ever-changing state of being.
–THE LONELY WEST–
The Lonely West 