This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Some people live for the present, others in the past. I prefer to live for the future. This is because I believe that the future holds huge amount of promise, both for humanity and for myself. In fact, I often cannot wait to see what amazing things will happen in the future.

Interestingly, I do not believe that someday in the future, all of the world’s problems will be solved. However, my outlook is nonetheless rather positive. Technological and medical advancements, along with more widespread education, are slowly but surely raising the standard of living throughout the world. Sometimes it may not seem this way, with millions dying every year of starvation, but if we look back in history, there is definitely an upward trend in people’s happiness with their lives. For example, every time a new cure is found and put into practice, hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of lives are saved. However, we must remember that these things can take time, and the one thing that the future has plenty of, is time.

Another aspect regarding the future that people have a philosophy about is whether or not to plan for it. Some people choose to organize every moment of their lives, from dawn until dusk. Others never plan a thing, and prefer to live on the wild side. I find myself on both ends of the spectrum, depending on what it is we are talking about. For example, I think it is important to plan education. As I apply to universities for next year, I realize how important it is to stay organized, and plan ahead so that I do not miss deadlines. Conversely, there are things that I prefer to be somewhat unorganized. In the summer of 2006, my family went on a canoeing trip in Quetico Park, in Ontario. Although we knew where we going, and approximately when, most of the trip was largely unplanned. In the end, it ended up being one of the most exciting vacations I have ever been on. Living without planning, along with the fact that we were somewhat “in the wild” added a sort of excitement to the whole thing, that people who meticulously plan every detail will unfortunately never experience.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Nobody can honestly say that they do not want to be happy in their lives. Some will claim otherwise, but this is generally just a call for attention. Because this is the case, it seems only fitting to have a section on what some see as the goal of life, happiness, in my philosophy of life.

I will start by answering the simplest question about happiness, yet possibly the most difficult to answer: what is happiness? This is a very important question to ask, as it is the answer to this that can very well decide whether an individual will ever be truly happy with their lives. For some, happiness is not easily attained. Instead, it requires a very specific set of circumstances – perhaps a family, perhaps money, perhaps love – before they can be happy. For others, like myself, happiness comes more from the simple fact that I know that I am alive and well. Maybe this seems quaint and cliche, but it is the honest truth. Because I do not believe in the afterlife, what I do in this life is very important, and because of this, what I do in this life makes me happy. According to some studies, involvement in a religion actually tends to make people happier. I personally feel that although this is possible, it may have something to do with their beliefs. If someone is not happy, perhaps they see this is a sign that they are unhappy with what their god has given them in life, which would be considered blasphemous.

It is difficult to describe the situation in which I would be most happy. I am fairly certain that I would not be rich and famous, not be around computers, nor would I be on an island in the middle of nowhere, alone with my thoughts. I think that because I am so happy with my day to day life, it is actually very hard to describe a happier situation. On the other hand, perhaps I am afraid that if I do think of a happier place, I will spend all my time dreaming about it, and get nothing done until I find myself in that place!

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Most people my age hate waking up early every morning to go to school and spend seven hours learning about things that they don’t think they will ever need to know. Excluding the waking up early part, I am of an opposite opinion. I find education very important in my life. In fact, I believe that one of my favourite things to do is learn.

While learning seems like a rather ridiculous hobby, I very much enjoy it. There are an infinite number of things to know about our universe, and although I will never know everything, I certainly enjoy trying. I’m not really sure where my curiosity originates from, but I generally don’t waste my time questioning things like this. Instead, I spend my time learning about the world around me. I believe that education is important to further the human race in every aspect. This is why I donate to charities that help further (mainly children’s') education in third world countries. Although I do not have the resources to help others learn in remote parts of the world, I enjoy helping them get access to the learning materials we have here in Canada. Interestingly, one aspect about school that I do not enjoy is the times when we aren’t learning something new, i.e. tests and lunch hour. It is for this reason that I come home at lunch: I sit down at a computer and read about all the new things happening in the world today. It may seem like an introverted and ridiculous thing to do, but I would much rather learn something new than socialize meaninglessly with people.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

It may seem odd that music should make an appearance in my philosophy of life. However, I believe that it has made a huge impact, both in my life and in the world in general. For me, music allows for an escape from everyday life. Perhaps this is because I play it so loud in my room that it blocks out things such as the phone and doorbell. Either way, it is nice that I can come home after a long or boring day at school/work, turn on my stereo, and listen to whatever I feel like listening to. Music has a huge ability to affect mood, and I am no exception to this. If I am feeling tired or bored, a loud, fast song does just the trick to make me feel alive once again. On the other hand, if it is late and I am still wide awake, a ballad from one of my favourite bands will help me relax. Somebody once said that music is what feelings sound like. Perhaps it is because artists put so much feeling into their music that it can have such an effect on my own.

On a more worldly scale, music is the universal language – it brings everybody together, without the need for words or other communication. The core components of music – tempo, key, rhythm – are all universal standards, which makes creating music with people who do not speak your language incredibly easy. Although I have not had such an experience myself, one of my friends went on a world tour with his family a few years ago. He is musically inclined, and so it was only natural that he would find other musically inclined people in the places he visited. One of these places was Tanzania. When he returned, he told me the story of the song he learned in Swahili while he was there. He had no idea what the lyrics meant, but that didn’t matter, as he enjoyed the rhythm and the song was catchy. If I asked him to sing the song today, I have no doubt that he would be able to, even though it was years ago that he learned it.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Money is becoming increasingly more important in the world today. With new technology, millions of dollars can be exchanged in the blink of an eye. New commerce sectors have appeared with the advent of the Internet – people can make a living without ever lifting a finger. But does all this change money’s role in life, and in happiness? For me, no. At this point in my life, money is not the least important thing in my life, but it definitely isn’t the most important either.

Some believe that having money or possessions will bring them happiness. This I know not to be true. Although sometimes buying something new and expensive for yourself seems rewarding, the happiness it brings usually wears off very quickly. The time and the effort we put into earning money to be able to buy something are rarely earned back in the hours, maybe only minutes of enjoyment we get from something new. I know this because there have been many things that I have spent hard-earned money on in my life that I wish I had not. A prime example of this is when I bought a computer server from someone who lives down the street. Although it was a few years old, the price at which I was buying it was much less than it was actually worth. Nonetheless, it put me back a few hundred dollars, and now I wish it had not. The problem was not that I had bought something overpriced and useless, but that I had bought something that I didn’t need. The server now sits in my room, day after day, doing nothing. I had not fully thought out why I wanted to buy the server- if I had, I would have realized that I had no real need for it and would be a few hundred dollars richer today.

Mentioning that I would have saved money brings me to another philosophy some people have about money: earn it and never spend it. This is very strange to me. If you work hard to earn something, why not use it? Is all the time and effort you spent earning that money not going to waste when you do nothing with it? It is only a hypothesis, but I believe that people who follow this line of thinking believe that by saving their money, they are better prepared for some unforeseen disaster that may befall them. Perhaps they are right in planning ahead in this fashion, but it is reasonable? In my life, I do save some money, but this is for a specific purpose: university. After university, I will probably have something else to save for, like an apartment. However, any money that I believe I have in excess I will probably spend. Although this seems to go against my previous thoughts about spending money, they actually work very well together. For example, I have now been working for two years, and I have accumulated a decent amount of savings. I will not need all of this to pay for tuition, so I decided that I could spend some on buying a new computer. I spent many months thinking about this purchase before buying it to ensure that I was not wasting my money, and when I finally did, I felt that I had bought something that will serve me day after day for several years. In spending my money wisely, I prevented being frivolous, but I also managed to enjoy myself.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

To me, freedom in all its forms, is very important. Freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of creativity – all of these I value dearly. Although I am generally a rule-abiding individual, I am liable to break the rules once my freedom is infringed upon. For example, if someone were to tell me that I am no longer allowed to be out past dark, I would be very upset. Although I do not generally stay out very late anyway, it is the idea that someone is trying to take away my right to do so that would irritate me.

I also believe that freedom of thought and speech enables us to better help society by saying and doing what we want, within reasonable boundaries. A famous example of somebody who used their freedom to help the betterment of society is Gandhi. Going against all odds, it was his freedom of thought that compelled him to free India from British rule. A much less famous example, yet possibly just as influential in the modern world, is Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). Although many people are not familiar with this concept, FOSS is software wherein the code used to make it is freely available and can be downloaded, edited and shared by anybody, all for free. What does this have to do with freedom, you ask? Quite simply, FOSS gives software authors the tools and resources they need to better their skills, and to help society. For example, FOSS was used for the One Laptop Per Child project, an attempt to bring technology to some of the poorest regions of the globe. Without the freedom that is FOSS, the software engineers that were part of the project would have been held back by legal matters, corporate greed, and capitalist competition.

An example in my own life of what freedom means to me, aside from the fact that I am avid supporter of FOSS, is that I will almost always say what I think. Without freedom of speech, people are not allowed to criticize their government, poke fun at the media, or be honest about what they think about a matter of importance. Although I do not openly insult people, I am honest, and will say what I honestly think when asked. If I were not able to do this, or if I had to fear for my life every time I made fun of Harper, I believe that my life would far too restrictive for me to handle.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Friendship is very important in a person’s life, no matter who they are. It is practically a human necessity to have someone’s shoulder to cry on, or to talk about absolutely inane things with. To me, friends are of great importance, even though there are aspects of friendship that one must be careful of.

Since I was young, I have always had a smaller group of friends. I believe this is because I would rather have a few good friends than many acquaintances. Maybe I’m just cheap and don’t want to buy lots of birthday and Christmas presents. Either way, I have always believed that friends are like so many things in life: quality is more important than quantity. Sometimes, I just need someone to talk to, and I am much more comfortable talking to somebody I know well. Sure, having a lot of close friends with whom you can talk would be nice, but friendship does require a fair amount of effort, and that probably would not be easy.

Friends are very important in my life, but there are certain aspects of friendship which can be somewhat dangerous. When you get to know someone really well, you tend to share rather personal information with them. This is why I prefer to have a smaller circle of friends: the fewer people I tell sensitive things to, the less chance there is of it becoming public. Although real friends would never reveal secrets about you, some will turn against you. This sort of action, whether done through malice, revenge, or envy, is one of the dangers of having friends. I have never had this problem. Perhaps this is because I am a very mellow person, and so are many of my friends. Perhaps it is because I rarely talk to any but my closest about sensitive things. Perhaps it is a combination of both. Either way, I have never broken up with a friend- for example, I have been friends with Johnathan since grade 2. Friendship is a very important thing to have in life, and even though it has its risks, just like everything else, it is one of the surest recipies for happiness.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

When defining our philosophy on love, it is important to first define our philosophy as to what love is. To me, love is a deep respect and understanding between two individuals. It goes deeper than a friendship, deeper than idolization, deeper than lust. I do not believe that love conquers all odds, nor do I believe that you can only love once. I don’t even believe that it is only possible to love only one person at a time – in fact, I love many people in my life (assuming I use my own definition of love).

For some people, love seems to be their goal in life. If they do not find a partner, get married and have a family, they will consider themselves unfulfilled. Although these things are nice, I do not believe that they are necessary. In fact, I am closer to believing the opposite, especially when it comes to marriage. I believe that marriage is an old and outdated ritual, and there really is no reason for it anymore. Hundreds of years ago, it may have made sense, but it is now obsolete. Two loving individuals should be able to be together without a ring and piece of paper to legally bind them. In fact, I see marriage as a weakness in a relationship- almost as if those involved feel they need a contract to prove that they do love each other.

Some say that love is extremely rare, or that it only happens once in a lifetime. I hope this isn’t true, otherwise the rest of my life could prove to be loveless. Do I believe that I was in love? Yes. But again, this is according to my own definition of love. If someone else had analyzed the relationship I once had with somebody, they probably would have made a very different conclusion.

Although I believe you can love more than one person at a time, I would not describe myself as polyamourous. I believe that love is much like friendship, in that it is possible for it to extend to several people in your life simultaneously.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

For me, my beliefs are based on logic and facts. For this reason, I do not follow any established religion, nor do I believe in any sort of omnipresent being. I believe that the universe and our world are controlled and exist by the laws of physics and human decision. However, even though I believe this, I have no objection to what others choose to believe, so long as they do not try to convert me to their method of thinking.

Since I was young, I have always been curious, and have always sought answers. Anytime something puzzled me, I sought to know the truth about it. In light of this, I never completely warmed up to the idea of a god. I found that a being watching over us and controlling the universe was completely absurd, and I therefore discounted it as a myth. Since then, I have not changed my views, although I have become more understanding of why people choose to be religious. Some seek safety – they believe that the afterlife will welcome them, no matter what they do in life. Some seek answers to the questions that science has not yet been able to solve.

Others, though, are essentially forced into religion by the teachings of their parents, teachers, and peers. This irritates me. Much like advertisers, religions tend to go after youth, as they are the easiest to influence. Many people, when asked why they became religious, will simply say that it is because their whole family is religious. Is this really a reason? If my parents love to drive motorcycles, does this mean I should too? In my mind, no. In my mind, religion should not even be introduced to children until they are at least 12. By this time, they are generally mature enough to decide for themselves whether they will choose to follow a religion or not. Although this will likely never happen, I would be curious to see how the number of people who are religious would change.

Another problem that I have with religion is the tension it creates. The Crusades, the Salem witch trials, suicide bombers. All of these are caused by misunderstandings and intolerance between religions. Even though most religions teach non-violence, there are those who misinterpret these teachings and cause suffering. Although I do believe that religion helps some people become more upstanding members of society, it has the opposite effect on others. I do not believe that godlessness is the solution to suffering, but it may help some people become more tolerant of others.

This was written as an assignment for my grade 12 religion class, which I recently re-discovered. Interesting for me to read, to see how it aligns with that which I believe now, but likely boring as hell for others. Enjoy at your own risk.

Whether we know it or not, everyone has their own philosophy of life. What we do, think and say is guided by our views on certain matters of importance. These views are all part of our philosophy. Sometimes, these views come from a classroom, sometimes a church, but more often than not, these views come from our own experiences. When we are young, we do not have a clearly defined philosophy. We are mostly told what to do and when to do it. As we age, though, we experience more and more situations where there isn’t a teacher or parent around to tell us what to do. These situations, where we must decide things for ourselves, and ultimately hold our own fate in our own hands, are what help people more clearly define their philosophy of life. For many people, these situations begin to happen a lot more in high school. Greater liberty and more responsibilities, both at school and at home, result in youth having to make more of their own decisions than ever before. Because of this, what better time is there to organise our thoughts on specific issues into a well-organised paper?

To be continued…