The Socratic Universe

What both caught my attention the most in this week’s reading was chapter six and seven of The Socratic Universe: Interviews with California Philosophers about the controversial topics regarding the existence of "God" and our "afterlife."

My beliefs can simply be explained in this excerpt from chapter six:

"I respond by asking what is God? And why do you capitalize the word (if you're not even sure God exists, aren't you presuming an answer by capitalizing the word as if God were a person)? Also, there are various things one might mean by existence(physical objects and concepts might both exist, but not in the same way), so I'm not sure which sense applies to God because I don't know what sort of thing God is supposed to be." – Griesemer (U.C. Davis)

I honestly don’t understand those religious wars/arguments. The existence of "God" differs from person to person because we are all individuals with difference backgrounds and beliefs. There is no point in arguing and fighting about something you can neither prove nor disprove. If you believe in God, then good for you; if you don’t, that’s great too.

As an Asian-American, I have been brought up in a household with slight influences of Buddhism. Thus, I do believe, or rather, I hope there will be an afterlife (if we’re lucky, we’d be reincarnated). I think it would be a waste if we suffer through decades of living just so we live to the day we cease to exist. Life is a journey filled with lessons and experiences, there MUST be a reason why we are here.

"I don't know. I haven't died yet and come back to tell anyone about it. You have to have "faith" to know what will happen. Although it will be the best sleep you ever had." – Ross (Claremont Scripps College)

I think these two topics should simply be concluded along the lines of "I don’t know," since the only thing we can do in order to get closer to the "truth" is to wait and see.