This is one of the philosophy questions in the 2012 French exam. On a whim, I would like to answer this question based on what I have learned and felt in my life. As a young woman with no home and a love of fantasy, who has never read a philosophy book or thought seriously about it, and who dislikes writing arguments, I was afraid that this would be a disappointing piece of writing, but I was "ambitious" because of it.
First, let's talk about something that just happened. After finishing everything in the evening, I took a book and leaned against the back of the bed to read it intently. The baby was lying in a corner of the bed, talking to me from time to time. I had been reading for some time and my eyes were a little tired, so I asked him, "Do you want to go to sleep? Mommy will sleep with you." After saying that, I turned off the light. He didn't blame me for turning off the light without asking his permission as usual, and I paid attention to the fact that he was thinking about his mind. Sure enough soon after, he asked me, "Mommy, why do you still have a mommy and daddy when you're grown up?"
"Yeah, mommy's all grown up, but she still has a long way to go."
"What about your mom and dad's mom and dad?"
"My mom's dad and my dad's mom are still around, they're pretty old but still have a long way to go with us."
"What about dad's dad?"
"That's your grandfather, he's dead." The question had been said a million times.
"What about Grandma's mom?"
"Granny is very old, very old, very ...... old, her hair is all gray, she died of old age last winter."
"......" He lapsed into silence, and a moment later ventured, "Wouldn't Grandma be miserable then?!"
"It's nothing to pity. We all get sick and die, it's perfectly normal. A very natural phenomenon."
Silence again. I knew he was thinking about something.
"So if I die, won't I never see my mom?" The words were choked and his eyes reddened. Seeing him like this made me smile. Hurriedly hugged him, "That won't happen. Mommy will always be with the baby. Mommy won't grow old until much, much later, and even if we both die, we'll meet on the other side." He cried more and more, his tears like beads on a dropped string. I comforted him as I wiped his tears and said so many kind words.
Since my father-in-law's untimely death last year, the baby always brought up his grandfather from time to time. And I began to realize it was time to educate him about life and death. My idea at first was simple - to tell him the real, scientific explanation: <b> death is a very common and natural phenomenon; all of us have to die someday; once a person dies, it means that he or she will never be seen again. </b> This can be described as the view of life and death that I hold in my world, and one of the views of life. To put it bluntly, my beliefs are atheistic, which means that I am a follower of natural science. That's why I chose to study science in the first place (I've only studied a little bit, but I'm certain that natural science explains all kinds of phenomena in the world).
And this belief is obviously rational. From the background of birth, there was a saying in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, "If you learn mathematics, science, and chemistry well, you will not be afraid of going everywhere." Using this saying as an argument is obviously not based on credibility, but it is a glimpse, I guess. What I'm trying to say is that my main belief - a big outlook on life - was influenced by the circumstances of the time. And, there can be no doubt about it.
This analogy is actually quite easy to understand: for example, <b> of all the books, in terms of content, I love literature the most. And this literary category is equivalent to the main faith in the faith that is atheism. Obviously, there are literary books that I favor and despise. </b> And there are divisions outside of literature, such as psychology, aesthetics, computers, education, and architecture and horticulture, that I also love. This is not contradictory, or even connected to each other. That said, I don't exclude people who have religion, Christ Jesus, Buddhism, etc. as a belief.
For a while in my elementary to middle school years, I learned to sing hymns at home, and choreographed some of the tunes into dances for my own amusement and self-obsession, of course. I also prayed, or knelt behind adults, closed my eyes, folded my hands, and said "Amen" with all my heart while they prayed. They would memorize the closing words of the prayers. For a long time afterward, I occasionally prayed helplessly to God (though I usually prayed to the moon), and I don't rule out praying in the future. And </b> the prayer I prayed the most was, "God, Almighty God, please let me believe in you with all my heart, follow you, and walk with you forever." </b> This was told to me by one of my aunts, to whose house I used to go when I was a child, and with whose second daughter I was so well acquainted that I could be called a dead friend. She also used to advise me to pray so, and she was convinced that God must not blame me, saying, "Don't deceive God, he knows everything." She also listened to the radio and enrolled in relevant colleges. She showed me her books and told me that the most famous who's who in the world believed in God. She also gave me the Bible and told me sentences from it. Sadly, however, to this day, if I were asked to pray, I would still do so. Even though God healed my mother, now she goes to church for three days.
I hope God forgives me for being stubborn. But I believe there was a time when my mother took Jesus as her faith and believed that he would bring her out of her sickness into beauty. My grandfather was also stubborn and was against my grandmother's faith in Jesus for a long time, but towards the end of his life he made sure to go to church every weekend. And Grandma couldn't read or write, but she could sing many songs and gradually recognized many words. To this day, my aunt and uncle have been the right-hand men in the church, and their home is often a gathering place for some suffering people, singing hymns, praying for others, bringing hope to others, and thus reaping warmth. Although I could not truly believe in Jesus from the bottom of my heart, I was always touched by this group of kind and ordinary people who gathered together and shared with each other. Whenever they are about to do something bad or have a bad thought, the first thing they always think is, "Oh, Jesus doesn't like it when I do that. He's watching me from heaven." Of course they would have some taboos, depending on different local customs, but that didn't matter.
Later, talking about Jesus with a friend, who was an atheist like me, he said, "Jesus is just a means for the ruling class to rule the people." That statement certainly sent me, who was still very young at the time, to the freezing North Pole. <b> Remember the words of Herbal: "Heaven is not merciful, nor are men of brains." Yet Jesus is merciful. </b> So now I don't care if Jesus is a means to an end for the rulers, but if he brings us real benefits. （There is a quote in Baidu: Faith is a positive factor in happiness. Faith can drive people to **** together to cope with misfortunes and disasters, leading to the interaction and support of the whole society.) This is also my answer to another French high school question - do we have an obligation to pursue truth - no. I believe the world is divided. As much as I love solitude and being alone and quiet, I know better: I can't exist apart from society. It's as if France produces philosophers, the Chinese can't win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Japanese love suicide.
With all of the above, it seems that belief in Jesus has nothing to do with rationality or irrationality. In fact, it is not necessarily so. I believe that 20 years ago many people like my mother heard that Jesus could heal the sick and went to believe in Jesus. Some people persevered and insisted on it, while others followed it for three to five years or even shorter and then gave up. I call the former rational belief in Jesus, while the latter is purely irrational, their purpose is to use Jesus to heal the sick rather than faith, and the ultimate result is to give up, whether the purpose is achieved or not. If they can give up, they can't be called faith, or "pseudo-faith". And I have chosen to respect those who believe in Jesus, and thus hold fast to my atheistic beliefs, through my knowledge of Jesus and the people around me, as well as my knowledge of myself. </b> Once again, rational faith is validated.
Back to the little thing at the beginning. An atheistic explanation of life and death is too cruel for a five year old. Though many times I don't realize the cruelty of the moment once I think of all the crises he may face in the future; on the other hand, I just want him to spend his childhood happily, after all, this short period of time will have extraordinary significance for him in the future. For my own part, I often think of the events of my hours, many of them foolish to the point of being home, but enjoying them. Almost subconsciously I immediately present him with the opposite explanation: we will meet in another world. Mommy will always be there for baby.
By the time he grows up, he will understand: we are indeed all going to die. At that time, I don't want him to be pessimistic, I tell him the truth, I just want him to cherish what he has at this moment. Life is beautiful precisely because it is short.
In the end I chose to tell beautiful little lies about his childhood. Because he had so many questions and was always worrying about things that were impossible to find out or far away.
This, then, brings us to the nature of faith: <b> believing it to be right, or even preferring to believe it to be right, independent of whether it is true or not. </b> Therefore, faith does not matter whether it is true or false, there is faith itself is a kind of value, because adhere to this kind of faith so that they have something to pursue, something to rely on. Faith is an assumption of the meaning of life. (Baidu and get. Thank you.)
I came to the realization in the last year or two that there is no meaning in life. There is only an assumption about the meaning of life. If life is meaningful, what is the meaning? <b> Atheism is only a foundational belief in my mind. In the high building of faith, atheism is only the bricks and mortar, responsible for consolidating the sturdiness of the house, and if you want the house to be beautiful and dignified to your liking, you have to rely on other materials: only the mind. </b>
Mindlessness cannot be considered a belief, and what I mean by mindlessness must be different from the definition in the political books. Let me explain what I mean by materialism, as far as I'm concerned, ah.
By materialism I mean:
1. Imagining as one pleases, based on the recognition of established universal facts. How to benefit the mind and body, how to imagine. For example, the poor I lost a hundred dollars (a hundred dollars is very important to me), I will accept this fact, and then as you wish to think: spend money to eliminate disaster; by the poorer than me to pick up; maybe someday I can pick up two hundred; I will be on the other hand, I will be gained ...... typical of the spirit of AQ ha.
2. Not to get in the way of not affecting others on the basis of living the life they want. I'll back off on the material side of things, while preserving the freedom and cleanliness of the spirit.
3. It is rational and mature materialism.
And I manifested my materialism in my writing and thoughts. I write what I want to write. There is no need to worry that I will write any disturbing sentences, nor will I worry that a bullet will pop out of it, much less an atomic bomb, because I don't have that power haha.
Maybe you are still in the clouds as I am, and can't find the right words to describe such a belief, so let me be more specific:
1. Words are the product of the mind, traces of mental activity. In writing and reading I have felt a power and am certain that this power will lead me to a better life - specifically: freedom of mind, peace of mind.
2. I believe in eternity, the future, the past, and the beyond. These terms seem synonymous to me. Sometimes doubted, after following the mind out, one soon realizes what a foolish thing it is to doubt them.
3. I believe in love. Love, affection, friendship. Rational faith will enrich my life.
4. I believe in freedom, independence, and equality.
5. I believe in nature and humanity.
Undoubtedly, all these beliefs are contrary to reason. But yet they can be rationally believed.
As for other beliefs: obsession and worship of power, status, money, reputation, beauty, etc., "timely happiness", "do a day monk ringing a day bell," "get over it! "and so on, are not in the scope of my discussion. At this point, Cotton and I have long been in agreement: we like the words = they like the house car ticket.
Simply put, there are two women, A like the house car ticket, have these she will be infinitely happy, B like words, read books, have a good book in the hand, more than the gods are happy, they do not understand each other, and even denigrate each other, but will be heart to heart, think differently, will find that each other is not different. Thus I am not belittling or ignoring these beliefs, I am just not interested and consciously walk away.
Writing this, I remembered a sentence: Nowadays, the reason why people are unhappy, a large part of it is because of the lack of true faith. Faith is the product of the mind, is the individual's conscious behavior, but does not mean that does not produce faith **** Ming. Thousands and thousands of years, for the pursuit of truth, for the perfection of the good book, for the exploration of the unknown ...... has never stopped footsteps, any era, any country, there are warriors for justice and truth. I believe they have *** with the same great faith, that is, great love and the vast and brilliant starry sky above our heads. <b>
Perhaps at the beginning of the faith is from a nerve within a moment of touch, but over time consciously adhere to down will find that the faith has long been integrated into the life, following our growth into a rational tree.
Thus, mature faith is not contrary to reason. Just as a ripe apple is sweet.