My journey with faith began in a place of earnest devotion. As a child, I found solace in the simple, powerful stories of my Christian upbringing. I was drawn to the sense of community and the clear moral compass it provided. I was a true believer, and I saw my faith as the single source of truth in a chaotic world.
However, as I grew older and my mind began to deepen, I became increasingly disillusioned. I found the narratives of a personal, interventionist God to be inconsistent with the scientific understanding of the world I was so passionately pursuing. This led me to a period of profound suspicion, and even hostility, toward organized religion. I saw the stories not as a source of wisdom, but as a tool used to rationalize a worldview that I felt was small, rigid, and often lacking in compassion.
But the human need for stories, for a framework to understand our world, is a powerful and very real thing. I have come to realize that the fault is not with the stories themselves, but with how they are wielded. The stories that we tell ourselves are an integral part of the human experience, and they can be used to rationalize actions that either violate or champion humanitarian ideals.
This journey has led me to a new place, a place of spiritual and philosophical liberation. I now understand God not as a personal being, but as a metaphor to describe the natural laws and rules that constrain, and yet give rise to, the reality we inhabit. My spirituality places the individual above the material, and my beliefs are a complex tapestry woven from a lifelong search for truth.
The Foundation of a New Philosophy
The conversation I recently had with a loved one illustrates the very core of this philosophy.
When he told me that I was subscribing to the beliefs of the "far left wing media and politicians that promote division and hate," I did not hear a person trying to engage with my views. I heard someone operating from a simple, tribal paradigm of us versus them. This is not a judgment on him, but a way to understand his worldview.
My worldview is a much more complex and compassionate one. I believe that all human life has equal worth, and all human suffering is worthy of sympathy. I believe that the human mind is a complex and fragile thing, and that our actions are not always within our control.
My purpose in life is to use my training as a psychiatric-neuroscientist to lobby for the widespread adoption of humanitarian ideals. The core of my philosophy, the culmination of a decade of scientific inquiry and a lifetime of curiously pursuing answers to the many questions I have, is this:
Truth from many sources
I read books, I read science, and I read mythology to find the wisdom that resonates with me.
The sacredness of the individual
My spirituality places the individual above the material, be that economic forces, material objects, or the alleged "word of God."
Radical acceptance
I choose radical acceptance over forcing anyone to conform to my limited and subjective perspective. If a behavior naturally and spontaneously arises (like homosexuality or a transgender identity), it is by definition natural.
The pursuit of a more compassionate society
The real problem is that society is not built to allow for the basic needs of humans beyond earning a paycheck. We need the appropriate social infrastructure to allow humanity to flourish.
The power of one
I am not trying to change the world in a single lifetime; I am planting trees that will grow for future generations.
