Rational Weltanschauung (Philosophy of Life)
- A possible way toward a believable belief -
A rational
weltanschauung (philosophy of life) is not based on any holy script or guru,
but only on rational thinking. A logical combination of a basic unproven
assumption with scientific facts, philosophical elements and one’s own
experience leads to an individual rational weltanschauung. The unproven
assumption, that there is only a material world and nonmaterial elements
(e.g. fields,
ideas, mind) can exist only in connection with matter leads to the
materialistic weltanschauung, often described as atheism. In this case you
cannot expect a deep sense of the total world scenario. Nevertheless, the
materialistic weltanschauung is a believable belief, but not the only one. With another unproven
assumption, that there is an independent spiritual world besides the material
one (non-materialism or dualism) you can have the basic faith that the total
world scenario has a deep sense and is running within a perfect program. With
such faith you can develop a rational weltanschauung for yourself by imagining
a world scenario showing the highest perfection and being in correspondence
with the proven scientific knowledge of today and with your own experience.
In my book
and briefly on this web page, I present the method for developing an individual
rational weltanschauung on a non-materialistic (dualistic) basis by my own
weltanschauung, merely as an example for discussion.
Hermann F. Raith,
Ph.D.
Mail to: Hermann Raith
ISBN 1-4196-1411-8 Easily available via BookSurge or Amazon. Online reading (free of
charge) is possible via Google
Book Search Biography: Hermann Raith
was born in
Book Summary: How to achieve a believable belief
or a rational philosophy of life? This booklet describes how everyone can
develop their own. It should be in accordance with the actual scientific
facts, but can also include consideration of philosophical elements that
have not been proven. The main guideline is the concern regarding how the
world should function perfectly, and to the satisfaction of everyone.
Brief Description
1. Introduction
Religious
organizations offer guidance, security and help to people who don't worry about
a connected weltanschauung. Which religious group has been selected is often
pure accident, but it doesn’t really matter as long as people feel at home
there and are satisfied. But what about people, who prefer to think for
themselves and are mainly interested in a believable weltanschauung? They have
to search for one (with questionable success) or develop one for themselves.
The objection from the religious side, that a religious belief is not the
result of rational thinking but of faith, is certainly true. But only the
rational aspects can be discussed and rational minded people would not enter
into emotional processes without a rational evaluation.
Let’s now
find out first, whether there is a believable alternative to the materialistic
weltanschauung at all.
2. Has God been swamped out
by the natural sciences?
The great
success in natural sciences was only possible because scientists have freed themselves
from religious weltanschauungs against the strong resistance of the churches.
They have chosen materialism as their working base, which was useful, because
the subjects of studies were only material processes and not the search for the
meaning of life. Knowledge about the universe and the discovery of evolution
seem to have God swamped out, but this impression is wrong. Certainly, the
churches with their often narrow-minded weltanschauungs have been pushed into a
corner, while the picture of God has gained very much. Is a God who created the
world through universal laws or programs not much more respectable and sublime
than a God who created all parts individually and has to take care for
everything permanently in a very labor-intensive manner? Even if sciences could
show that the whole universe has been developed from nothing without any mystic
processes, it would not change the situation, because there is still the
question why all that happened.
3. Is there room for an
individual soul?
Some people
state that they cannot imagine how a nonmaterial soul could interact with
matter. But there is much more which we cannot imagine, e.g. how huge forces
between orbs can act through an empty space -- although such effects can be
precisely calculated.
More
convincing is the argument that in brain research a lot of detailed processes
have been analyzed without finding anything that could have been caused by a
soul. But if there were a similar detailed analysis of all technical processes
that go on in a big aircraft (which are much less complex than in a brain) --
would it really be possible to differentiate whether the aircraft is flying by
autopilot or just as a tool under the full control of a pilot (in analogy to
the soul)? Researchers hope further that if it will be possible in the far
future to simulate all functions of a brain by a computer, and that this will
include self-awareness. But do we really know what self-awareness and
consciousness mean? If it would be possible to transfer all brain functions to
a computer, this may also mean that a suitable interface for adapting a soul is
available. There are still many open questions, but no real proof against or
for the existence of souls is available.
Nature
does perfect recycling in all respects e.g. the water cycle. In addition,
evolution caused an upward-directed development of biological species just by
accidental genetic changes and selection of the fittest. Having these perfect
scenarios in mind, it would be rather astonishing if the most valuable
individual experience, especially of higher, self-aware species, would simply
get lost. The transfer of the individual human experience in life to the next
generations is certainly very poor. From this consideration alone it would make
sense that each individual is represented by its soul, which will not die with
the biological body.
4. How convincing are
"proofs"?
Real
proofs based on repeatable experiments are only possible in natural sciences,
where the materialistic working base is adequate. But it seems to be dangerous
to transfer this working base to other disciplines like psychology, because no
knowledge about a possible spiritual world could be gained. Unfortunately
"proofs" in such disciplines have only limited value and can easily
be doubted.
In the
materialistic view, each person is totally defined by heredity (genes) and by
environmental influences.
What about
"identical" twins (generated by one ovum), who should be more similar
than clones, because they have not only identical genes but also very similar
environmental influences before and often also after birth? If you ask such
twins whether they feel like a copy of the other twin not only in respect to
their body but also in respect to their character, they will certainly
disagree. Often, it is also sufficient to look into your own family in order to
realize that the differences between siblings are sometimes too great to be
accounted for on the basis of the known hereditary and environmental factors.
What about
"infant prodigies", where children show very early great performance,
which is extremely unusual and cannot be explained? What about geniuses, who
appear from time to time without having visible roots in their family?
Finally,
there are the NDE studies (NDE = Near Death Experience) started over 30 years
ago by the physician Dr. Raymond Moody. He interviewed many patients who had
clinically died but got reanimated. Their stories have great similarities.
Also, some of them reported events from some other place, and these claims
could be substantiated by witnesses. Such studies have been repeated and
confirmed by many other scientists. However, there are also studies that try to
argue against this evidence according to the motto: “What should not be cannot
be”.
Such "proofs" are not generally convincing. Our
weltanschauung is like a puzzle. We get a picture from somewhere, but we will
only recognize those events that fit our picture, regarded as puzzle pieces.
Many other puzzle pieces may fit to other pictures, but if they are useless for
ours, they will be automatically ignored. The universal picture
(weltanschauung) is therefore much more important than any puzzle pieces
("proofs"), which have no value by themselves,
if they don't fit to our predefined picture.
5. How to develop an individual
rational weltanschauung on a non-materialistic basis?
With the
assumption that there is an independent spiritual world besides the material
one, we can have the faith that the total world scenario has a deep sense.
Probably the scenarios are much better than we can imagine, but they may also
be outside our horizon. Nevertheless, we can try to imagine how the world
should be functioning in order to be perfect. Knowing that all natural laws
including evolution are simple and perfect, the same should be valid for the
combined spiritual and material laws, which could be the base for our
"constructive imagination".
The
development of an individual rational weltanschauung is similar to the
development of a scientific theory. The result is therefore always open for
discussion and improvement. Such weltanschauungs can and should include
unproven elements of philosophy and religions as long as they can be rationally
integrated. New experiences will modify the individual weltanschauung, which
will then grow in parallel to the individual (soul) and its horizon.
It is
still an open question whether such individual rational weltanschauungs
developed by different people will be completely different or similar. In any
case, an open discussion would be interesting and helpful.
6.
How are individual souls developed (my weltanschauung
as an example)?
It is
possible that every biological body has a soul, which survives after death. In
most cases, the soul can't be recognized at all and it will just be there for
learning and growing by actions in biological life, programmed by evolution.
Such unconscious souls may merge until bigger units can awake as
self-recognizing individuals. This eventually leads to the human level. Now,
the soul determines more and more of the individual’s actions. The soul*s
development will go on in many reincarnations (rebirths). Each life in a new
environment will provide great chances for individual growth. Although there is
no active knowledge about past lives, the previous experience may still be virtually
existent. Finally, the soul may grow to
a level, where each individual can decide for itself about the direction of its
future development, which may also go on without being connected with a
material body.
This
process of individual development could be compared with climbing a tree. Along
the trunk the way is well defined and without any choices. But when branches
appear, the individuals have to decide where to go. The higher we climb, the
more possibilities for individual development will appear and the wider will be
our horizon. Those who still climb the trunk cannot imagine how they will feel
when they reach higher levels.
This
example of an individual rational weltanschauung reflects the world scenario by
three ongoing processes: Recycling of matter, biological evolution and endless
development of conscious individuals (souls). These processes go on and may
have been started without any interaction of God. Therefore the question of
whether God exists is only a philosophical one. Much more important seems to be
the question: Is there a spiritual world beyond matter and will we still exist
as active and self-aware individuals after our biological death? My personal
answer here is a clear "Yes".
German version:
www.users.bigpond.com/hermann.raith/german.htm
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Discussions via the internet
This
website was first published in November 2000 (original website with t-online.de). Many discussions have taken place since then,
via forums and newsgroups on the internet. Such discussions show the extremely
wide range of opinions and are helpful for a further development of one’s own
weltanschauung. These discussions also caused me to modify my views, and
further updates will follow. Therefore it could happen that early ideas and
suggestions by others have been incorporated into my current weltanschauung.
Links to related forum discussions: www.users.bigpond.com/hermann.raith/links.htm
Last
change: June 2006