My basic philosophy of life is formed out of the sum of my experiences. My religious upbringing and early family life helped shape my beliefs, as well as many different educational experiences.
My religious education taught me to believe that there is a God. My experiences have shaped my relationship with God and what I believe is his revelation of truth to me. If you open yourself to God his path for revealing the truth is revealed. This is what I believe to be rooted in apriori knowledge. As this knowledge is understood God’s truth is revealed. This is the ultimate purpose to man’s existence and man’s ultimate responsibility. These philosophies are in some ways (and this makes me) Pragmatic and Existential. My Pragmatic tendency values experience as a source for revelation of truth. The Existentialist in me must acknowledge that until we choose to recognize the revelations, the revelations essentially do not exist. They are but shadows on a wall. Truth is revealed through our experiences and our search, but ultimately it is our own responsibility to undertake that search.
I believe that all that we can see and know is real, but that reality is changing. Since we are limited by only what we can know to be real we have to rely on God’s revelations to us. I believe these revelations happen all the time. We just need to be tuned in to see them.
It is similar to when you are having trouble with a problem. If you let it go then you subconscious mind can work it out and the solution just seems to appear. It is the same way with truth. We are always seeking what is real, but only what is true is revealed when we least expect it. These nuggets of truth can lead us to what is real.
I value these experiences and anything that can bring me closer to truth and God. These experiences exist in art, religion, and science. They can all be sources of revelation. As we live these experiences we come closer so that when we die we will be ready for the final revelation and become reunited with God, with the truth.
